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BAYARD  TAYLOR'S 
TRANSLATION  OF  GOETHE'S  FAUST 


KY 


JULIANA  HASKELL,  A.M. 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements  for 

THE  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the  Faculty 

OF  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


H^ 


NEW   YORK 
1908 


BAYARD  TAYLOR'S 
TRANSLATION  OF  GOETHE'S  FAUST 


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BAYARD   TAYLOR'S 
TRANSLATION  OF  GOETHE'S  FAUST 


BY 

JULIANA  HASKELL,  A.M. 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements  for 

THE  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the  Faculty 

OF  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


OF  THE 

t^NIVERSITY 

OF 

s£lk'FORN\^ 


NEW   YORK 
1908 


Copjnright,  1908 
By  The  Columbia  University  Press 

Printed  from  type  April,  1908 


PRESS  OF 

The  new  Era  printin«  compant 
Lancaster.  Pa. 


TO 

SELINA   MILLON 

AND 

WILLIAM    H.   SHIELDS 


173667 


NOTE 

The  criticism  of  a  poetic  translation  is  difficult  because  the 
critic  will  inevitably  be  tempted  to  compare  it  with  an  ideal 
which  is  perhaps  forever  unattainable.  This  seems  unjust 
to  the  translator,  because  all  translation  of  poetry  must  be 
more  or  less  a  makeshift.  But  even  such  a  comparison,  if  it 
be  scholarly  and  not  finical,  has  its  value — especially  when, 
as  in  the  case  of  Taylor's  version  of  Faust,  a  definite  and 
rigid  theory  of  translation  is  involved.  The  problem  attacked 
by  the  author  of  this  study  is  not  to  decide  whether  Taylor's 
version  is  or  is  not  better  than  any  other,  or  whether  it  is 
or  is  not  the  best  we  are  ever  likely  to  get  in  the  exact  meters 
of  the  original.  Her  questions  are  rather :  Is  it  poetry  ?  Does 
it  do  the  work  of  poetry  when  read  by  one  somewhat  sensitive 
to  the  traditions  of  English  verse?  How  much  of  Goethe's 
poetry  has  been  sacrificed  to  a  theory?  It  seems  to  me  that 
Mrs.  Haskell's  searching  study  of  these  questions  is  interesting 
and  valuable. 

Calvin  Thomas 

Columbia  University,  January,  1908. 


Vll 


PREFACE 

Professor  Calvin  Thomas  suggested  to  me  the  theme  of  this 
dissertation.  I  am  likewise  indebted  to  Professor  Thomas  for 
good  counsel  and  helpful  criticism.  Courtesies,  which  have 
materially  furthered  my  work,  were  shown  me  by  Mrs.  William 
H.  Carpenter,  Mrs.  Bayard  Taylor,  Professor  Emeritus  Edward 
M.  Brown  of  Cincinnati  University,  Professor  William  H. 
Carpenter  of  Columbia  University,  Mr.  George  W.  Harris  of 
Cornell  University,  Professor  Emeritus  James  M.  Hart  of 
Cornell  University,  Mr.  Henry  S.  Haskell,  Professor  William 
A.  Hervey  of  Columbia  University,  Professor  Waterman  T. 
Hewett  of  Cornell  University,  Mr.  Leonard  Mackall  and  Mr. 
W.  R.  Price. 


IX 


A  Roman  followed  by  an  Arabic  numeral  indicates  invariably 
the  one-volume  edition  of  Taylor's  translation  of  "  Faust,"  pub- 
lished by  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company,  Boston  and  New 
York,  bearing  no  date  upon  its  title  page,  but  copyrighted  1870 
and  1898;  1.  or  11.  followed  by  an  Arabic  numeral  refers  to 
the  edition  of  Goethe's  "  Faust "  edited  by  Professor  Calvin 
Thomas,  who  follows  the  Weimar  edition. 


CONTENTS 
Introduction   i 

CHAPTER  I 
Taylor's  Equipment  for  His  Task , 4 

CHAPTER  II 
Concerning  Bayard  Taylor's  Theory  of  Translation    19 

CHAPTER  III 
The  English  of  Taylor's  Translation 57 

CHAPTER  IV 
Concerning  the  Poetic  Worth  of  Taylor's  Trans- 
lation       74 

Bibliography   90 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  the  fortune  of  some  books  to  acquire,  early  in  their 
career,  a  certain  reputation,  which  duly  formulated,  attaches 
itself  to  them,  and  becomes  almost  as  much  a  part  of  them  as 
their  very  titles. 

Provided  a  book  is  consulted  for  isolated  passages,  rather 
than  read  as  a  whole,  or  provided  it  is  praised  and  not  read  at 
all  (and  that  has  been  the  fate  of  many  a  book  both  before  and 
since  Lessing's  famous  epigram  on  Klopstock's  works),  its 
formulated  reputation  readily  becomes  traditional  and  main- 
tains itself  through  generations  unchallenged. 

Thus  it  has  become  customary  to  follow  up  all  mention  of 
Taylor's  translation  of  "  Faust "  with  an  obligate  corollary 
relative  to  its  excellence.  The  public  has  apparently  agreed 
to  accept  Taylor's  own  estimate  of  that  work,  and  to  regard 
it  as  "  the  English  '  Faust,'  which  will  henceforth  be  the  only 
one."^ 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  dissertation  to  inquire  into  the 
validity  of  the  enviable  reputation  which  Taylor's  "  Faust " 
has  now  borne  for  something  over  one  generation. 

In  order  to  establish  at  the  outset  a  point  de  repere,  we  may 
seek  to  determine  for  whom  Taylor  translated  the  "  Faust." 
He  did  not  translate  it  for  the  native  German,  who  will  read 
naturally  and  properly  enough  his  "  Faust "  in  the  original. 
He  did  not  translate  it  for  the  English-speaking  person,  who 
has  an  accurate  and  ready  knowledge  of  German.  He,  too, 
will  prefer  his  "  Faust "  precisely  as  Goethe  wrote  it.  Taylor 
very  evidently  translated  "  Faust "  for  that  English-speaking 
person  who  has  sufficient  culture  to  desire  to  become  acquainted 
with  "  Faust,"  but  who  is  cut  off  from  all  intelligent  enjoy- 
ment of  the  original  because  he  knows  no  German. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  cultured  English-speaking  person 
who  has  no  command  of  German,  and  who  nevertheless  desires 

*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  551. 
2  1 


to  know  "  Faust,"  it  is  essential  that  the  translator  of  "  Faust " 
shall  write  normal  English,  that  he  shall  represent  Goethe 
fairly,  and,  if  he  determines  upon  a  metrical  translation,  that 
he  shall  invest  his  rendering  with  a  modicum  of  poetry,  of 
which  meter  and  rhythm  are  merely  the  outer  garb.  Of  these 
three  requirements  the  first  two  are  imperative,  and  to  my  mind 
the  third  is  equally  imperative,  provided  a  metrical  rendering 
is  determined  upon.  Taylor  himself,  as  will  be  seen  by  con- 
sulting the  prefaces  to  the  First  and  Second  Part  of  his 
"  Faust,"  believed  the  retention  of  the  original  metrical  form 
to  be  a  matter  of  paramount  importance.  Mr.  Stedman  has,  I 
think,  a  juster  view  of  relative  values.  He  believes  that,  in 
weighing  one  against  the  other,  the  various  losses  entailed  by 
translation,  one  can  best  afford  to  sacrifice  the  metrical  ar- 
rangement.^ 

Madame  von  Holtzendorff  of  Gotha  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, Taylor's  translation  is  not  "  the  perfect  equal  of  the 
original."^  But  I  should  not  think  of  quarreling  with  it  on 
that  account.  Grillparzer  is  quite  right,  when  he  says  (as 
Herder  said  before  him)  that  poetry  cannot  be  translated.* 
Imperfection  is  characteristic  of  all  translation,  and  more 
ought  not  to  be  exacted  of  Taylor's  work  than  may  reasonably 
be  demanded  of  any  metrical  translation  of  "  Faust."  It  shall 
be  composed  in  normal  English,  it  shall  represent  Goethe  fairly, 
and  poetry  shall  be  the  sole  rcdson  d'etre  of  its  rimes  and 
rhythms. 

In  an  eclectic  translation  of  Goethe's  "  Faust "  certain  por- 
tions of  Taylor's  work  would  no  doubt  be  preserved,  for  exam- 
ple, perhaps  several  of  the  stanzas  of  the  "  Song  of  the  Arch- 
angels," the  entire  ballad  of  the  "  King  of  Thule  "  (although 
this  to  be  sure  is  at  least  fifty  per  cent,  the  property  of  Brooks), 
and  the  lines : 

And  in  waves  of  silver,  drifting 

On  to  harvest,  rolls  the  corn.  (II,  5) 

'  Cf.  E.  C.  Stedman,  Poets  of  America,  p.  210, 
'  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  562. 

*  Cf.  Grillparzers  s'dmtliche  Werke,  edited  by  August  Sauer,  v.  16,  p.  46, 
and  V.  19,  p.  59. 


The  deeps  with  heavenly  light  are  penetrated; 
The  boughs,  refreshed,  lift  up  their  leafy  shimmer 
From  gulfs  of  air  where  sleepily  they  waited;  (II,  6) 

and 

When  Nature  in  herself  her  being  founded. 

Complete  and  perfect  then  the  globe  she  rounded. 

Glad  of  the  summits  and  the  gorges  deep. 

Set  rock  to  rock,  and  mountain  steep  to  steep. 

The  hills  with  easy  outlines  downward  moulded, 

Till  gently  from  their  feet  the  vales  unfolded !  (II,  230) 

However,  in  my  opinion,  the  translation  as  a  whole  does  not 
meet  the  demands  which  may  reasonably  be  made  upon  it,  and 
it  will  be  my  endeavor  to  show  precisely  wherein  I  think  it 
falls  short. 


CHAPTER   I 
Taylor's  Equipment  for  His  Task 

Bayard  Taylor's  translation  of  "  Faust "  was  published  on 
December  14,  1870.^  In  honor  of  the  occasion,  James  T. 
Fields,  the  publisher,  gave  a  dinner-party,  to  which  certain  of 
the  more  notable  American  men  of  letters  were  bidden.  John 
G.  Whittier  found  himself  unable  to  attend  this  dinner-party, 
and  declined  the  hospitality  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fields  in  a 
gracious  note,  in  which  he  said,  "  It  seems  to  me  that  he 
(i.  e.,  Taylor)  is  precisely  the  man  of  all  others  to  do 
it"  {i.  e.,  translate  " Faust ").2  To  establish  Whittier's  state- 
ment, that  Taylor  was  the  man  of  all  men  to  translate  "  Faust," 
would  require  an  interminable  application  of  the  process  of 
exclusion.  A  less  ambitious  statement  to  the  effect  that  Taylor 
was  especially  equipped  for  his  task  admits  of  practical  dis- 
cussion. 

Whittier  did  not  ask  his  host  and  hostess  to  accept  his  un- 
supported pronouncement.  He  gave  his  reasons  for  the  faith 
that  was  in  him.  After  jocosely  deprecating  the  fact  that 
Taylor  labored  "under  the  misfortune  of  not  having  been 
bom  in  sight  of  Boston  meeting-house,"  he  continues,  "  In  the 
first  place  ...  he  inherits  from  his  ancestry  the  Quaker  gift 
of  spiritual  appreciation  and  recognition,  the  belief  not  only 
in  his  own  revelations,  but  in  those  of  others.  In  the  second 
place,  he  is  a  poet  himself.  Thirdly,  he  has  studied  man  and 
nature  in  all  lands  and  in  all  their  phases,  and  fourthly,  he 
has  brought  himself  into  the  closest  possible  association  with 
the  culture  and  sentiment,  the  intellect  and  the  heart  of  the 
Germany  of  Goethe,  by  bringing  under  his  roof-tree  at  Cedar- 
croft  an  estimable  countrywoman  of  Charlotte  and  Margaret, 
Natalie  and  Dorothea."^ 

^  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  542. 
'  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  543. 
•  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  543  f. 

4 


Mrs.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Scudder  have  set  forth  their  reasons 
too  for  "the  real  power  which  enabled  him  (Taylor)  to  cope 
with  the  profoundest  difficulty  in  translating  '  Faust.'  "*  Their 
reasons,  briefly  summarized,  are:  (i)  He  was  a  poet.  (2)  He 
was  ripe  for  Goethe's  thought.  (3)  He  was  in  a  creative 
mood,  "constructing  part  by  part  a  great  poem  which  lay 
alongside  of  *  Faust,'  singularly  harmonious  with  the  original."^ 
(4)  "He  had  a  remarkable  memory  ..."  which  "was  of 
great  value  to  him  in  his  work  of  translation,  since  it  released 
his  mind  from  the  necessity  of  a  fatiguing  hunt  after  par- 
ticulars, and  enabled  him  to  hold  steadily  before  his  imagina- 
tion the  large  thought  of  the  verse,  to  make  comparisons 
with  instantaneous  readiness,  and  to  move  freely  and  unem- 
barrassed through  his  material."® 

It  is  possible  to  phrase  certain  of  Taylor's  qualifications  for 
his  task  with  a  shade  more  of  exactitude.  I  should  find 
Taylor's  fitness  in  his  command  of  the  technique  of  poetry 
rather  than  in  the  fact  that  he  was  a  poet.  To  write  Bayard 
Taylor  a  poet  requires  so  many  qualifying  appendages;  nor 
is  there  any  qualifying  formula  which  is  everywhere  satis- 
factory. Taylor's  good  friend,  R.  H.  Stoddard,  says  Taylor 
was  not  a  great  poet.*^  Nor  was  he  even  a  leading  poet  in  a 
country,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse,  has  no  great 
poets.®  He  is  not  of  the  favored  four  (Longfellow,  Bryant, 
Emerson  and  Poe)  whose  merits  Mr.  Gosse  believes  may  be 
"  discussed  in  connection  with  the  highest  honors  in  the  art." 
Even  when  Professor  Curtis  Hidden  Page  extends  the  number 
of  the  chief  American  poets  to  nine,^  still  Bayard  Taylor  is 
not  of  them.  Mr.  Walter  Lewin,  an  English  critic,  grudgingly 
allows  Taylor's  poethood,  but  with  qualifications,  saying,  "he 

*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  556. 

'  Mrs.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Scudder  refer  doubtless  to  the  "  Masque  of  the 
Gods"  published  in  1872. 

®  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  pp.  556  ff. 

'  Cf.  North  American  Review,  v.  130,  p.  98:  Bayard  Taylor's  Poetic 
Works;  "It  will  not  do  to  say  that  he  was  a  great  poet,  for  great  poets 
are  rare." 

'  Cf.  Forum,  v.  VI,  pp.  176-186.      "Has  America  produced  a  poet?" 

•  Cf.  The  Chief  American  Poets,  by  Curtis  Hidden  Page,  Ph.D.,  Boston, 
New  York,  etc.,  1905. 


6 

was  something  else  in  the  first  place,  and  a  poet  only  in  the 
second  place.  Readers  of  this  biography^"  will  be  impressed 
more  by  the  business  talent  he  displayed  than  by  any  other 
single  characteristic.  He  knew  prices  and  values  in  the  literary 
market  as  well  as  any  broker  knows  what  com  and  cotton  are 
worth.  .  .  .  His  letters  are  not  the  letters  of  a  poet,  but  of  a 
man  of  the  world  ...  he  postponed  poetry  to  the  acquisition 
of  wealth,  giving  the  best  and,  as  it  proved,  nearly  all  the 
years  of  his  life  to  the  latter.  .  .  .  If  he  had  been  a  poet  first 
of  all,  he  could  not  have  treated  poetry  as  a  commodity  to  be 
laid  by  until — other  requirements  being  satisfied — there  should 
be  leisure  to  enjoy  it  ...  as  a  man  of  the  world  first,  and  as 
a  poet  second,  Bayard  Taylor  must  be  regarded."^^  Finally 
a  nameless  critic,  otherwise  kindly  enough  disposed,  comments 
on  poems  which  Stoddard  esteemed  "  superior  to  anything  of 
their  kind  in  the  English  language,"^^  and  states  (provided 
poet  a  nascitur  non  fit  still  prevail)  that  he  is  not  certain  that 
Bayard  Taylor  is  a  poet  at  all.^^ 

Even  if  one  incline  to  believe  with  Mr.  Howells^*  and  with 

"  Mr.  Lewin  is  reviewing  the  Life  and  Letters  by  Mrs.  Taylor  and  Mr. 
Scudder. 

"  Cf.  Academy,  v.  XXVI,  p.  299. 

"  Cf.  New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1878. 

"  Cf.  North  American  Review,  review  of  Poems  of  the  Orient,  v.  LXXX, 
p.  266.  "  Mr.  Taylor's  volume  contains  a  large  amount  of  healthy,  manly 
sentiment,  such  as  does  credit  to  his  mental  and  moral  nature ;  and  yet 
we  a  little  doubt  whether  he  is  a  born  poet."  Cf.  also  National  Quarterly 
Review,  December,  1862,  pp.  176  ff.,  review  of  the  Poet's  Journal:  "We 
shall  say  no  more  on  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  writing  such  a 
*  Journal,'  assuming  the  poetry  to  be  real ;  but  we  think  that,  although 
Plato  would  exclude  the  poets  from  his  model  Republic,  Mr.  Taylor  would 
have  little  to  fear;  for  he  would  readily  pass  muster  as  being  very 
nearly,  if  not  entirely,  innocent  of  '  the  sacred  fire  that  leads  astray.' 
To  be  frank  we  cannot  see  that  Mr.  Taylor  has  any  just  claim  to  the  title 
he  assumes,  let  us  apply  what  test  we  may  to  his  efforts.  '  Celui-la  seul 
est  poete,'  says  Laharpe,  '  qui  sait  dire  de  belles  et  bonnes  choses,  non 
seulement  sans  que  la  mesure  et  la  rime  leur  otent  rien,  mais  meme  de 
maniere  que  la  mesure  et  la  rime  leur  donnent  plus  d'effet  et  d'eclat.'  " 

"  Cf.  Harper's  Weekly,  v.  40,  p.  294,  review  of  Smyth's  "  Bayard 
Taylor " :  " .  .  ,  his  poetry  remains.  I  do  not  mean  that  it  all  remains 
or  will  remain ;  but  I  do  mean  that  in  any  story  of  our  literature  his 
place  as  a  poet  is  secure.  His  place  as  a  poet  is  secure  in  the  hearts  of 
all  lovers  of  poetry,  by  at  least  virtue  of  three  or  four  pieces  which  are 


Mr.  Stedman/^  that  Taylor  really  was  a  poet,  the  degree  of 
Taylor's  poetic  gift  could  hardly  be  established  without  re- 
course to  Professor  W.  P.  Trent's  sliding  scale/^  an  ingenious 
and  benevolent,  but  in  the  present  case  not  wholly  satisfactory 
method  of  disposing  those  men  whose  work  is  neither  first 
nor  perhaps  second  rate,  but  who  must  still  be  reckoned  as 
poets. 

There  would,  I  believe,  be  unanimity  in  excluding  Bayard 
Taylor  peremptorily  from  Professor  Trent's  first  and  second 
classes.  It  is  conceded  that  he  is  neither  "  supreme  "  nor  yet 
"  very  great."  But  when  it  comes  to  determining  in  which  of 
the  three  remaining  classes  he  is  to  be  ranged,  there  are  many 
minds.  Some  maintain  he  was  "  great "  ;  others  grant  he  was 
"  important " ;  Professor  Trent,^^  for  example,  considers  him 
"  minor  " ;  and  there  are  possibly  some  few  ( Professor  Barrett 
WendelP®  may  be  of  them)  who  insist  that  Bayard  Taylor 
belongs  to  the  body  which  Professor  Trent  declines  to  classify, 
"  authors  who  won  applause  for  a  day  but  were  soon  forgotten 
and  need  not  be  revived." 

most  distinctly  and  entirely  his  own."  Of  this  latter  point  Professor 
Barrett  Wendell  is  not  so  sure.  Cf.  A  Literary  History  of  America, 
p.  455 :  "  From  boyhood  Taylor  had  travelled,  and  had  written,  and  had 
read  poetry,  and  had  tried  to  be  a  poet;  and  he  certainly  made  something 
which  looks  poetic.  As  surely,  however,  as  his  verse  never  touched  the 
popular  heart,  so  his  supreme  literary  effort  never  much  appealed  to  those 
who  seriously  love  poetry." 

"  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  81:  "We  find  ourselves  observing  a 
true  poet."  In  Poets  of  America,  p.  396,  Mr.  Stedman  modifies  this  to : 
"  We  find  ourselves  observing  one  whose  ideal  was  higher  than  anything 
which  his  writings,  abundant  as  they  are,  express  for  us,  and  one  who  none 
the  less  has  claims  to  be  estimated  in  some  degree  by  that  ideal." 

"  Cf.  International  Monthly,  v.  5,  p.  505,  "  The  Question  of  '  Greatness 
in  Literature.' " 

"  Cf .  Trent :  American  Literature,  p.  472.  "  Abler  men  than  Bayard 
Taylor  have  not  in  the  end  obtained  so  high  a  place  among  minor  poets 
as  seems  likely  to  be  his." 

"  Cf.  Barrett  Wendell :  A  Literary  History  of  America,  pp.  455-458 ; 
"  Early  in  middle  life  Bayard  Taylor  had  unquestionably  attained  such 
literary  eminence  as  is  involved  in  having  one's  name  generally  known. 
The  limits  of  this  eminence,  however,  appeared  even  while  he  was  alive ; 
if  you  asked  people  what  he  had  written,  the  chances  were  they  could  not 
tell.  .  .  .  His  ambition  was  to  make  a  great  poem.  In  view  of  this  there 
is  something  pathetic  in  the  list  of  forgotten  titles  he  has  left  us." 


8 

It  seems  better,  therefore,  to  place  our  emphasis  upon  a 
point  concerning  which  more  concord  obtains  among  competent 
persons.  Taylor's  technical  skill  as  a  maker  of  verse  has  been 
very  generally  acknowledged.  Mr.  Howells  commends  the 
"technical  perfection "^^  of  Taylor's  verse.  Mr.  Congdon 
doubts  "if  in  any  of  his  poems  a  slovenly  line  or  an  intolerable 
rhyme  can  be  found."^*  Professor  Trent  says,  "  He  was 
almost  never  careless  in  his  workmanship."^^  Onderdonk 
asserts  that  "  none  of  our  verse  writers,  aside  from  the  Cam- 
bridge poet  (i.  e.,  Longfellow)  has  given  so  much  attention  to 
form."22  Stoddard  believed  that  deficiency  of  technical  skill 
had  never  been  charged  against  Taylor.^^  Indeed,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  the  poems  of  Taylor  suffered  from  an  excess  of  art. 
Mr.  Stedman  regards  "  his  facility  "  as  "  dangerous  indeed. "2* 
And  Stoddard  wrote,  "If  he  sinned  in  his  poetic  practice,  it 
was  in  the  direction  of  art,  of  which  he  possessed  too  much 
rather  than  too  little."^*^  But  the  point  which  we  are  eager  to 
make  has  been  best  put  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Smyth,  who  speaks  of 
Taylor  as  a  "  meister-singer, — a  guild-singer, — a  man  of  talent, 
and  master  of  the  mechanics  of    his  craft."^® 

Taylor  was  conscious  apparently  of  his  cunning,  and  de- 
lighted in  poetical  tottrs  de  force — the  greatest  of  them  all 
being  "  Faust."     He  tried  his  hand  at  almost  every  form  of 

"  Cf.  review  of  Home  Pastorals,  Ballads  and  Lyrics,  Atlantic,  v. 
XXXVII,  p.  108. 

"  Cf.  C.  T.  Congdon,  Reminiscences  of  a  Journalist,  Boston,  1880,  p.  244. 
Mr.  Congdon  was  over  sanguine,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  event. 

^  Cf.  Trent,  American  Literature,  p.  472. 

^  Cf.  Onderdonk,  History  of  American  Verse,  p.  235. 

^  Cf.  North  American  Review,  v.  130,  p.  98:  "Bayard  Taylor's  Poetical 
Works " ;  Stoddard's  carelessness  (hardly  that  of  the  type-setter)  makes 
him  say,  "  Technical  skill  in  which  Mr.  Joyce,  and  Mr.  Arnold  in  a  less 
degree,  are  deficient,  was  never  charged  against  Mr.  Bayard  Taylor " — 
something  quite  the  reverse  of  course,  of  that  which  Stoddard  was  at- 
tempting to  say. 

**  Scribner's  Monthly,  "  Bayard  Taylor.  His  Poetry  and  Literary  Career," 
V.  XIX,  pp.  81  ff. 

"  Cf.  North  American  Review,  v.  130,  p.  98. 

^  Cf.  Smyth,  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  273. 


verse,  lyric,  epic,  idyllic,  dramatic.^^  His  "  Prince  Deukalion," 
approved  by  Mr.  G.  P.  Lathrop  as  a  "profitable  study  for 
metrical  artists  every where,"^^  exhibits  an  "excess  of  rhythmi- 
cal beauty,"^^  vying  with  "  Faust "  itself  in  metrical  variety. 
Taylor  took  keen  pleasure  in  employing  difficult  and  unusual 
meters.^^  He  could  reproduce  the  feminine  and  dactylic  rimes 
of  "  Faust,"  "  which  have  been  for  the  most  part  omitted  by 
all  metrical  translators  except  Mr.  Brooks."^^  Within  the 
compass  of  his  "  Picture  of  St.  John  "  he  produced  "  more  than 
seventy  variations  in  the  order  of  rhyme."^^  He  indulged  to 
the  point  of  mannerism  in  those  things  which  make  up  the 
outward  appurtenances  and  pomp  of  poetry.  Of  Taylor's  very 
first  book,  Mr.  Stedman  said :  "  One  quality  is  apparent  which 
afterward  marked  his  verse — a  peculiar  sonorousness,  especially 
in  the  use  of  resonant  proper  nouns,  the  names  of  historic  per- 
sons and  places."^^  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  we  are 
abundantly  cautious  when  we  write  Bayard  Taylor  a  clever 
craftsman. 

The  reminiscent  note  discoverable  in  Taylor's  poetry  again 
suggests  a  special  qualification  as  a  translator.  This  reminis- 
cent note  is  found  not  alone  in  the  minority  poems,  where  we 

""  Cf.  Studies  in  Poetry  and  Criticism,  London,  1905,  p.  58  £.,  by  John 
Churton  Collins :  "  In  serious  poetry,  there  was  scarcely  any  note  which 
he  did  not  strike.  Studies  from  the  Greek,  studies  in  Oriental  life,  studies 
in  Italian  life,  studies  in  Pennsylvanian,  in  Calif ornian,  in  Norse  life: 
lyrics  in  every  key  and  in  almost  every  measure,  Pindaric,  Hafizian, 
Shelleyan ;  threnody  and  dithyramb,  love-song  and  war-song,  state-song 
and  ballad :  narratives  and  idylls  of  equal  range  and  variety :  drama,  ideal, 
realistic,  lyrical." 

^  Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  43,  p.  117. 

"  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.   19,  p.  266. 

^  Cf.  Faust,  II,  pref.,  p.  xiv :  "  I  am  not  aware  that  either  the  iambic 
trimeter  or  the  trochaic  tetrameter  has  ever  been  introduced  into  English 
verse."  Cf.  also  Picture  of  St.  John  (1866),  Introductory  Note,  p.  iv: 
"  I  know  of  but  one  instance  in  which  the  experiment  (t.  e.,  employing  the 
ottava  rima,  adhering  rigidly  to  the  measure  and  limit  of  the  stanza,  yet 
allowing  freedom  of  rhyme  within  that  limit)  has  been  even  partially 
tried— the  *  Oberon  '  of  Wieland." 

'^  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xvi. 

^^  Cf.  Picture  of  St.  John,  edition  of  1866,  Introductory  Note,  p.  vi. 

"  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  81. 


10 

should   on   the   whole   expect   it,^*   but   throughout   Taylor's 
poems.^^     It  is   sometimes  a  matter  of  epithet.^®     Thus  his 

^  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  81  :  "  Byron,  Scott,  Moore,  Mrs. 
Hemans,   Bryant,   are  echoed   here   and  there,"    (t.   e.,   in  Ximena,    1844). 

^  Cf.  Academy,  v.  9,  p.  95,  review  of  Home  Pastorals,  Ballads,  and 
Lyrics:  "It  is  not  so  easy  to  give  an  idea  of  the  subject  of  these  Pastorals, 
Mr.  Bayard  Taylor  goes  into  the  country  (apparently  at  various  times), 
and  *  moralizes  at  large.'  He  sees  a  naked  Irishman,  and  improves  him 
promptly.  He  alludes  frequently  to  his  travels,  and  at  last  comes  to  an 
end  rather  piously.  .  .  .  Ballads  and  Lyrics  are,  in  one  respect,  rather 
more  satisfactory  than  Home  Pastorals,  in  that  it  is  often  possible  to  dis- 
cover their  import  with  a  fair  amount  of  labour  and  luck.  It  is  also  a 
possible,  and  indeed  an  unavoidable,  discovery  that  Mr.  Bayard  Taylor 
has  evidently  bestowed  on  the  poets  (his  brother-poets,  we  suppose  he 
would  say)  of  England  and  America  a  careful  and  not  infructuous  perusal. 
The  already  mentioned  descant  upon  the  naked  Irishman  would  assuredly 
never  have  been  written  but  for  certain  pages  in  Leaves  of  Grass.  And 
we  must  take  leave  to  doubt  whether  '  The  Old  Pennsylvania  Farmer '  does 
not  owe  his  existence  to  a  certain  Lincolnshire  prototype ;  whether  *  In 
My  Vineyard '  has  not  to  pay  copyright  to  '  Amphion ' ;  and  whether 
*  Iris '  would  not  do  well  to  annoimce  herself  as  a  bastard  of  the  '  Cloud.' 
Furthermore  we  think  that  '  Implora  Pace '  might  as  well  acknowledge 
indebtedness  to  part  of  Mr.  Arnold's  '  Switzerland,'  and  that  '  Run  Wild ' 
exhibits  signs  of  something  more  than  admiration  of  the  *  Haunted  House.' 
Finally,  *  Canopus '  shows,  if  it  shows  nothing  else,  that  Mr.  Taylor  is  a 
diligent  and  appreciative  student  of  the  *  Dream  of  Fair  Women.'  That 
these  likenesses  do  not  exist  in  our  imagination,  any  qualified  student  of 
poetry  will  perceive  as  soon  as  he  opens  the  book,  and  we  cannot  help 
thinking  it  is  a  pity.  The  pity  is  all  the  more  pitiful  because  Mr.  Taylor, 
with  many  short-comings  (what  on  earth  makes  him  rhyme  '  weather '  with 
'  ether,'  and  commit  the  horrible  atrocity  of  making  the  second  syllable  of 
adytum  long?)  has  certain  mechanical  capabilities  about  him,  and  is  by  no 
means  inorganic.  ...  It  is  indeed  a  pity  that  an  instrument  of  such 
excellent  tone  and  range  should  not  be  at  the  disposal  of  a  truer  artist, 
and  should  not  discourse  more  original  music." 

^*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  685 :  James  T.  Fields,  the  publisher,  took 
Taylor  to  task  for  appropriating  in  his  "  National  Ode "  the  "  feather- 
cinctured  "  of  Gray.  Taylor  replied,  "  I  have  tired  my  brain  to  no  purpose 
about  the  epithet.      These  are  the  lines : 

No  more  a  Chieftainess,  with  wampum-zone 
And  feather-cinctured  brow. 
Now,  I  can't  say  either  '  feather-girdled '  or  '  feather-belted,'  after  using 
zone.  There  only  remains  *  feather-banded,'  which  sounds  flat  and 
millinerish.  Gray  says  'feather-cinctured  chiefs,'  referring  to  a  feather 
petticoat,  hanging  from  the  waist;  and  in  the  same  line  he  steals  'dusky 
loves'  from  Pope!  Why  shouldn't  I  take  what,  after  all,  is  probably  not 
Gray's  own?  Is  it  worth  while  to  be  tender  towards  such  an  intolerant 
old  thief  as  he?     As  for  what  may  be  said  of  me,  I  don't  regard  it  at  all. 


11 

"trumpet  snarling "^^  savors  of  Keats,^^  his  "multitudinous 
.  .  .  Ocean  "^^  of  Shakspere.*^  Again  it  is  a  matter  of 
cadence. 

"  Ernest  will  come !  "  the  early  sunbeams  cried ; 

"  Will  come !  "  was  breathed  through  all  the  woodlands  wide ; 

"  Will  come,  will  come !  "  said  cloud,  and  brook,  and  bird ; 

And  when  the  hollow  roll  of  wheels  was  heard 

Across  the  bridge,  it  thundered,  "  He  is  near !  " 

And  then  my  heart  made  answer,  "  He  is  here !  "  " 

straightway  recalls  Tennyson.*^  Sometimes  Taylor's  theme 
itself  is  reminiscent.  "  The  Soldier  and  the  Pard  "  has  more 
than  one  point  of  contact  with  "  The  Ancient  Mariner  " ;  the 
"  Ode  to  Indolence  "*^  has  much  in  common  with  the  song  of 
the  "  Lotos  Eaters  " ;  and  the  lines 

"  Two  spirits  dwell  in  us ;  one  chaste  and  pale, 
A  still  recluse,  whose  garments  know  no  stain,  etc."  ** 

inevitably  conjure  up  Goethe.*^  Finally  there  are  strange 
double  echoes,  as  when 

"  Thy  soul  is  lonely  as  a  star. 
When  all  its  fellows  muffled  are, — "  " 

I  swear  to  you,  I  never  thought  of  Gray  till  you  mentioned  the  fact.  The 
adjective  came  of  itself  and  therefore  insists  on  staying.  There  is  no  poet 
living,  or  who  ever  has  lived,  who  does  not  occasionally  take  a  marked 
word  from  another.  Even  Goethe  took  Schiller's  Donnergang,  and  got 
all  the  credit  of  it,  until  I  first  pointed  out  where  it  came  from.  Tennyson 
is  full  of  such  use,  and  so  is  anybody  you  can  name.  Give  me  an  equally 
good  epithet,  and  I'll  burn  incense  under  your  photograph !  "  Professor 
Calvin  Thomas  has  pointed  out  to  me  that  "  Donnergang  "  really  belongs 
to  Klopstock. 

"  Cf.  The  Test,  stanza  I. 

**  Cf.  The  Eve  of  St,  Agnes,  stanza  IV. 

'»  Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  145,  1.  5. 

*»  Cf.  Macbeth,  Act  II,  Sc.  2. 

**  Cf.  The  Poet's  Journal,  First  Evening. 

*^  Cf.  Maud,  XXII,  stanza  X. 

*^  This  poem,  it  is  only  fair  to  state,  is  omitted  in  the  definitive  ed.  of 
1902.  Taylor's  poem  "  The  Summer  Camp "  smacks  similarly  of  the 
"Lotos  Eaters";  cf.  Putnam's  Magazine,  v.  VII,  p.  109:  "His  (i.  e.. 
Bayard  Taylor's)  fine  poem  of  the  *  Summer  Camp  '  would  have  been  finer 
than  it  is,  had  he  not  happened  to  think  of  the  '  Lotos-Eaters.'  " 

**  Cf.  Picture  of  St.  John,  The  Artist,  stanza  XXXV. 

«Cf.  1.  1 1 12  ff. 

*•  Cf,  Taylor's  Serapion. 


12 

suggests  at  once  Wordsworth's  "  I  wandered  lonely  as  a  cloud," 
and  the  same  poet's  "  Fair  as  a  star  when  only  one  is  shining 
in  the  sky."  Taylor  himself  was  not  unconscious  of  this  remi- 
niscent note,  for  he  once  wrote,  "  Every  author  is  familiar  with 
the  insidious  way  in  which  old  phrases  or  images,  which  have 
preserved  themselves  in  the  mind  but  forgotten  their  origin, 
will  quietly  slip  into  places  when  the  like  of  them  is  needed."*^ 
More  than  this,  Taylor  was  constantly  frankly  and  avowedly 
imitating  other  poets.  The  divinity  of  his  early  days  was 
Shelley,*^  "  from  whose  weird  and  ethereal  influence  Taylor 
never  quite  freed  himself,  nor  desired  to  free  himself,  until 
his  dying  day."*^  Even  the  "Bedouin  Song,"  which  antholo- 
gists have  made  us  regard  as  peculiarly  Taylor's  own,  shows 
strongly  the  influence  of  Shelley,  although  in  token  of  such 
influence  I  would  quote  the  second  stanza  rather  than  the  first 
stanza,  as  Professor  Beers  does.*^^  As  early  as  1848^^  Taylor 
commenced  to  imitate  the  work  of  other  poets  as  a  sort  of  intel- 
lectual sport,  in  which  Stoddard  and  Fitz  James  O'Brien 
shared.  "Fitz  James  O'Brien,"  says  Stoddard,  "was  a  fre- 
quent guest,  and  an  eager  partaker  of  our  merriment,  which 
somehow  resolved  itself  into  the  writing  of  burlesque  poems. 
We  sat  around  a  table,  and  whenever  the  whim  seized  us, 
which  was  often  enough,  we  each  wrote  down  themes  on  little 
pieces  of  paper,  and  putting  them  into  a  hat  or  a  box  we  drew 
out  one  at  random,  and  then  scribbled  away  for  dear  life.  We 
put  no  restriction  upon  ourselves  ;  we  could  be  grave,  or  gay,  or 
idiotic  even,  but  we  must  be  rapid,  for  half  the  fun  was  in 
noting  who  first  sang  out,  '  Finished ! '  It  was  a  neck-and- 
neck  race  between  Bayard  Taylor  and  Fitz  James  O'Brien, 
who  divided  the  honors  pretty  equally,  and  whose  verses,  I  am 
compelled    to    admit,    were   generally   better   than    my   own. 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  Tennyson,  p.  22. 

**Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  XLIII,  pp.  242  ff.  Reminiscences  of  Bayard  Taylor 
by  R.  H.  Stoddard.  Cf.  also  Bayard  Taylor's  Poems,  Household  Edition 
(1902),  p.  213,  "Christmas  Sonnets,  To  R.  H.  S.,"  "I  Shelley's  mantle 
wore,  you  that  of  Keats." 

"  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  XIX,  pp.  81  ff. 

•*Cf.  Beers,  Initial  Studies  in  American  Literature,  p.  172. 

"*Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  p.  132. 


13 

Bayard  Taylor  was  very  dexterous  in  seizing  the  salient  points 
of  the  poets  we  girded  at,  and  was  as  happy  as  a  child  when 
his  burlesques  were  successful."^^ 

This  sort  of  poetic  diversion  Bayard  Taylor  seems  never  to 
have  dropped.  At  any  rate,  it  was  cultivated  at  the  Sunday 
soirees  of  the  Taylors  during  the  winter  of  1863-1864.^^  The 
public  first  had  an  opportunity  to  applaud  Taylor's  cleverness 
at  imitation,  when  the  "  Battle  of  the  Bards  "  appeared  in  the 
Tribune.^*'  Altered  and  amplified  the  "  Battle  of  the  Bards  " 
was  metamorphosed  into  the  anonymous  "  Echo  Club  "  of  the 
Atlantic  (1872)  and  the  authorship  was  avowed  when  the 
"Echo  Club"  came  out  in  book  form  in  1876. 

It  is  a  pity,  I  think,  that  we  Americans  assume  so  conde- 
scending an  attitude  toward  works  of  humor,  that  we  persist 
in  regarding  them  as  essentially  ephemeral,  and  relegate  them 
— anywhere  outside  of  literature.  Something  of  this  national 
condescension  crops  out,  when  Professor  Trent  says,  "  It  is 
pathetic  to  find  him  (i.  e.,  Bayard  Taylor)  .  .  .  publishing 
parodies  on  popular  poets."^^  It  happens,  however,  that  the 
"  Echo  Club,"  the  publishing  of  which  Professor  Trent  finds 
so  pathetic,  is  esteemed  by  Mr.  Howells  as  "  the  best  parodies 
ever  written,"**®  in  which  opinion  he  is  supported  by  Robert 
Browning.**^  Unfortunately  Professor  Trent  has  the  reading 
public  with  him.  The  "  Echo  Club  "  fell  flat,  when  published 
anonymously  in  the  Atlantic.     It  was  received  with  indiifer- 

"  Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  XLIII,  p.  242. 

^  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  108 ;  "  Wir  waren  die  ersten,  die  es  wagten, 
am  '  Sabbat '  ein  '  At  Home '  zu  haben.  ...  An  diesen  Abenden  pflegten 
die  '  Diversionen,'  denen  Bayard  Taylor  spater  im  '  Echoklub '  feste 
Gestalt  verlieh,  eine  geist-  und  humor-spriihende  Unterhaltung  zu 
gewahren." 

"  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  159. 

"  Cf.  Trent,  American  Literature,  p.  470- 

"Cf.  Atlantic,  January,  1877,  P-  92;  review  of  "Echo  Club." 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  620 :  Taylor  writes,  "  Story  told  me  that 
Browning  sent  him  the  *  Echo  Club '  last  summer,  with  a  note  saying  it 
was  the  best  thing  of  the  kind  he  had  ever  seen,  and  that  if  he  had  found 
the  imitations  of  himself  in  a  volume  of  his  poems  he  would  have  believed 
that  he  actually  wrote  them !  " 


u 

ence  when  it  appeared  in  book  form^^  and  it  is  now  quite  for- 
gotten. If  we  would  take  our  humor  more  seriously,  as  the 
English  do,  we  have  in  the  "  Echo  Club  "  a  classic  in  its  kind, 
with  which  to  confront  confidently  the  "  Bab  Ballads,"  or  any 
of  the  productions  of  Edward  Lear,  Charles  Stuart  Calverly, 
or  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson.  In  my  estimation  the  "  Echo 
Club  "  is  the  best  of  the  works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  the  only  one 
of  which  one  may  speak  with  almost^®  unqualified  praise. 

We  are  to  ascribe,  I  believe,  the  reminiscent  note  in  Taylor's 
poems,  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  parodies  in  part  to  his  abnor- 
mally retentive  memory,^**  in  part  to  that  skill  in  technique, 
which  apprehended  and  reproduced  with  consummate  ease  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  others,  in  part,  thinks  a  writer  in  the  "  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica,"  to  Taylor's  lyrical  faculty.®^ 

^  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  690 :  " .  .  .  .  it  was  worse  than  irony 
to  him  that  so  clever  and  skillful  a  bit  of  work  (i.  e.,  the  "  Echo  Club ") 
should  have  fallen  upon  an  apathetic  public." 

^  I  say  "  almost  "  because  I  think  Mr.  Howells  is  right  when  he  says : 
"  We  never  thought  the  machinery  (i.  e.,  the  prose  in  which  the  parodies 
are  embedded)  of  The  Echo  Club  a  very  fortunate  conception.  .  .  . 
The  comment  is  well  enough,  but  the  critical  analysis  of  the  authors 
parodied  is  not  of  unusual  fineness,  and  too  much  of  the  talk  consists  of 
needless  apology  for  taking  the  liberty  to  travesty,  and  of  protest  that  no 
harm  is  meant."  Atlantic,  January,  1877,  P«  92.  Mr.  Stedman  thinks 
(or  thought)  otherwise.  He  says :  "  So  good  are  its  (i.  e.,  the  "  Echo 
Club ")  imitations  of  modern  poets  that  this  book  takes  rank  with  '  Re- 
jected Addresses,' — so  good,  in  truth,  that  upon  reading  the  prose  dialogue 
which  connects  them,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  it  made  up  of  some 
of  the  most  wholesome,  kind,  and  alert  criticism  that  has  appeared  in 
recent  times."  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  XIX,  pp.  266  if.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  when  Mr.  Stedman  came  to  write  his  chapter  on  Bayard  Taylor  in 
Poets  of  America,  which  is  based  often  verbatim  upon  the  earlier  article 
in  Scribner's  Monthly,  he  omits  the  passage  just  quoted. 

"*  Cf.  Lippincott,  August,  1879,  p.  209,  H.  H.  Boyesen :  "Reminiscences 
of  Bayard  Taylor  " :  "I  have  frequently  heard  Mr.  Taylor  complain  that  his 
memory  was  an  inconvenience  to  him.  He  would  read  by  chance  some 
absurd  or  absolutely  colorless  verse,  and  it  would  continue  to  haunt  him 
for  days.  One  single  reading  sometimes  sufficed  to  fix  a  poem  indelibly 
in  his  mind.  The  first  part  of  Faust  I  verily  believe  he  could  repeat  from 
beginning  to  end.  .  .  .  Even  the  second  part,  with  its  evasive  and  im- 
palpable meanings,  he  had  partly  committed  to  memory ;  or,  rather,  it  had, 
without  any  effort  of  his  own,  committed  itself  to  his  memory." 

^  Cf.  Britannica,  sub  voce  Taylor,  Bayard ;  "  He  had,  from  the  earliest 
period  at  which  he  began  to  compose,  a  distinct  lyrical  faculty:  so  keen 
indeed  was  his  ear  that  he  became  too  insistently  haunted  by  the  music 
of  others." 


15 

Undoubtedly  Bayard  Taylor's  excellent  knowledge  of  Ger- 
man— a  language  he  spoke  with  ever-increasing  ease  from  his 
twenty-first  year  on®^ — equipped  him  in  no  slight  degree  to 
translate  "  Faust."  An  equally  important  asset  (if  not  the 
most  important  of  all)  in  the  undertaking  was  his  wife  Marie 
Hansen.  Any  attempt  to  show  Bayard  Taylor's  heavy  obliga- 
tion to  his  wife  is  partially  thwarted  by  Mrs.  Taylor's  own 
beautiful  but  perverse  modesty.  One  yearns  with  a  writer  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  Nation  "  to  know  Marie  Hansen's  part  in 
his  literary  development  and  in  his  masterpiece,  the  '  Faust.'  "^^ 
One  need  await,  however,  no  disclosures  from  Mrs.  Taylor. 
She  remains  consistent  in  her  attitude  of  self -depreciation. 
"  Einstmals,  klagte  ich,  dass  ich  eine  so  prosaische  Lebens- 
gefahrtin  fiir  ihn  sei,  so  wenig  beanlagt,  ihm  geistig  eben- 
biirtig  zur  Seite  zu  stehen,  wie  es  bei  dem  Browningschen  Paar 
oder  bei  Dick  und  Lizzie  Stoddard  der  Fall  sei."^*  None  the 
less  it  is  distinctly  symbolic,  I  think,  that  the  German  text,  on 
which  Taylor  based  his  "  Faust,"  was  one  of  his  wedding 
gifts.^*^ 

It  cannot  be  directly  proven  that  Mrs.  Taylor  stimulated 
her  husband's  study  of  Goethe  in  general  and  of  the  "  Faust " 
in  particular.  But  it  can  be  shown  that  Taylor's  interest  in 
Goethe  synchronizes  with  the  advent  of  Marie  Hansen  into 
his  life.  We  know  that  Taylor  possessed  the  complete  works 
of  Goethe  when  he  returned  from  his  first  visit  to  Europe 
(1846).®^  But  we  have  no  record  in  the  Life  and  Letters  that 
he  read  them  before  1857,  the  year  of  his  marriage.  Of  the 
Germans,  it  is  Schiller  whom  he  reads  f^  Schiller's  "  Life  and 
Genius,"  on  which  he  is  prepared  to  lecture  ;^^  Schiller  whom 

"^  Cf.  At  Home  and  Abroad,  I,  p.  34,  "  First  Difficulties  with  Foreign 
Tongues " ;  "  Mr.  Willis  deposited  me  safely  in  the  eilwagen  for  Heidel- 
berg, where  [in  Heidelberg  doubtless]  I  remained  quietly  until  I  knew 
enough  German  to  travel  with  ease  and  comfort."     This  was  in  1845. 

"  Cf.  Nation,  v.  LXXXII,  p.  100,  review  of  On  Two  Continents, 

•*  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  70, 

•"  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  41. 

"•  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  p.  100. 

"  Cf .  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  p.  102;  cf.  also  ibid.,  p.  209. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  p.  197. 


16 

he  learns  by  heart,  and  recites  in  the  temples  of  India;®® 
Schiller,  who,  together  with  Shelley,  influences  the  first  period 
of  his  poetic  work.*^® 

As  far  as  I  am  able  to  learn  the  first  bit  of  Taylor's  Faust- 
translation  which  was  printed  was  the  "  Soldiers'  Song "  of 
the  First  Part,  which  appeared  as  a  "  Song  from  Goethe  "  in 
1859.^^  Taylor  was  conscious  of  "  something  rich  and  strange  " 
when  he  first  turned  to  Goethe,  for  he  wrote  in  1866,  "  My 
studies  now  are  changed  from  what  they  once  were.  I  read 
first  of  all  Goethe.  ...  I  abhor  everything  spasmodic  and  sen- 
sational, and  aim  at  the  purest,  simplest,  quietest  style  in  what- 
ever I  write."*^^ 

It  is  clear  from  Taylor's  letters  that  his  wife  was  his  literary 
adviser.  He  consulted  her  first  in  regard  to  whatever  he 
wrote,''^  and  he  found  her  a  keen  critic.*^*  In  matters  German 
this  was  bound  to  be  peculiarly  so.  It  is  quite  natural,  as  Mr. 
Stedman  says,  that  "she  confirmed  his  taste  for  the  thought 
and  letters  of  her  Fatherland,  and  was  his  constant  aid  in  the 
study  of  them."" 

~  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  38. 

'"  Cf.  Poetical  Works,  Household  Ed.,  1902,  pref.,  p.  iv. 

'^  Cf.  Knickerbocker  Magazine,  March,  1859,  p.  277. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  459  f. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  565 :  "  My  wife  says  the  plan  so  far  is 
very  successful."  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  575,  "  Not  a  soul  here  has  read  the 
*  Masque '  except  my  wife."  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  634,  " .  .  .  no  one  here,  except 
my  wife,  has  any  suspicion  of  what  I  have  done."  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  651,  "  Ex- 
cept my  wife,  the  only  human  being  who  has  seen  the  MS.  is  Boker."  In 
this  connection  the  letters  which  passed  between  Taylor  and  his  wife, 
during  the  composition  of  the  "  Prophet,"  are  instructive.  Mrs.  Taylor 
at  the  time  was  under  a  physician's  care  in  Leipzig,  while  Taylor  was 
mostly  in  Weimar.  Cf.  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  179,  "  Hier  und  da  frage 
ich  mich,  ob  Dir  wohl  diese  oder  jene  Stelle  gef alien  wird,  ich  bin  aber 
meiner  Sache  nie  ganz  sicher."  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  181  ;  "  Ich  bin  bei  der 
siebenten  und  letzten  Szene,  die  morgen  fertig  wird ;  so  kann  ich  Dir  also 
den  ganzen  Akt  mitbringen."  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  185  ;  "  Da  alle  Faden  der  Hand- 
lung  jetzt  zusammengesponnen  sind,  so  bin  ich  sicher,  dass  ich  Akt  V 
in  der  nachsten  Woche  vollenden  kann.  Dann  komme  ich  auf  eine  Woche 
nach  Leipzig.  Einstweilen  aber  erwarte  mich  diesen  Sonnabend,  denn 
ich  muss  Dir  Akt  IV  vorlesen,  ehe  ich  Akt  V  schreibe." 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  599 :  "  I  have  no  audience  or  adviser 
here  but  M.,  who  is  all  the  keener  because  a  loving  critic." 

"  Cf.  Poets  of  America,  p.  369. 


17 

Mrs.  Taylor's  precise  share  in  the  translation  of  "  Faust," 
has,  as  far  as  I  know,  been  nowhere  recorded.  But  that  she 
did  share  in  the  great  task  of  her  husband,  is  admitted  by- 
Taylor  himself. 

This  plant,  it  may  be,  grew  from  vigorous  seed. 

Within  the  field  of  study  set  by  song; 

Sent  from  its  sprouting  germ,  perchance,  a  throng 

Of  roots  even  to  that  depth  where  passions  breed; 

Chose  its  own  time,  and  of  its  place  took  heed; 

Sucked  fittest  nutriment  to  make  it  strong: — 

But  you  from  every  wayward  season's  wrong 

Did  guard  it,  showering,  at  its  changing  need. 

Or  dew  of  sympathy,  or  summer  glow 

Of  apprehension  of  the  finer  toil. 

And  gave  it  so  the  nature  that  endures, 

Our  secret  this,  the  world  can  never  know : 

You  were  the  breeze  and  sunshine,  I  the  soil: 

The  form  is  mine,  color  and  odor  yours ! " 

It  remains  finally  to  be  noted  that  Taylor  himself  would 
have  found  one  of  his  chief  qualifications  as  a  translator  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  an  American.'^^  He  admitted  that  he 
indulged  "the  hope  that  the  great  poets  of  other  lands  and 
ages  may  receive  their  fittest  English  speech  through  Amer- 
ican authors."  And  he  adds,  "  The  divergence  of  our  national 
temperament  from  its  original  character,  is  in  this  respect  a 
fortunate  circumstance.  A  great  many  causes  have  combined 
to  make  the  American  a  much  more  flexible,  sympathetic,  im- 
pressionable creature  than  his  ancestor  or  cotemporary  cousin. 
Not  being  born  to  fixed  habits  of  thought,  he  more  easily 
assumes,  or  temporarily  identifies  himself  with  those  of  other 
races;  he  is  more  competent  to  shift  his  point  of  view;  he  is 
more  capable  of  surrendering  himself  to  foreign  influences, 
and  recovering  his  native  manner  when  the  occasion  has  passed. 
His  power  of  sensation  is  keener,  his  capacity  for  enthusiasm 
greater.""^® 

"Cf.  Poetical  Works,  Household  Edition,  1884,  p.  214  f.:  "To  Marie. 
With  a  copy  of  the  translation  of  Faust." 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  478 :  "  We  Americans  make  better  trans- 
lators than  the  English,  and  we  shall  drive  the  latter  out  of  the  field." 

'^  Cf.  Critical  Essays  and  Literary  Notes,  p.  258  f. 

3 


18 

Such  a  resume  of  Taylor's  equipment  prepares  the  reader 
to  find  his  "Faust"  poetically  indifferent  or  at  best  uneven. 
On  the  other  hand  he  will  expect  to  find  it  admirable  in  all 
those  things  which  may  be  achieved  by  technical  skill ;  by  con- 
tinued experience  in  the  imitation  of  other  poets;  by  as  thor- 
ough a  mastery  of  the  German  language  as  a  foreigner  can 
well  obtain  ;^®  by  hard  work  f^  by  the  adaptability  of  an  Amer- 
ican temperament;  and  by  the  aid  of  a  competent  and  en- 
thusiastic collaboratrice. 

"Cf.  National  Quarterly  Review,  September,  1871,  p.  Z7Z'  Ludwig 
Fulda  would  regard  Taylor's  exceptional  knowledge  of  German  as  a 
matter  of  small  moment.  Fulda,  in  his  delightful  essay,  "  Die  Kunst  des 
Ubersetzers"  (Cf.  Aus  der  Werkstatt,  p.  157  f.),  says  in  part:  "  Nach 
alledem  kann  fiiglich  kein  Zweifel  mehr  obwalten,  worauf  es  beim 
Ubersetzen  hauptsachlich  ankommt.  Nicht  auf  die  Beherrschung  der 
fremden,  sondem  auf  die  Beherrschung  der  eignen  Sprache.  Bei  der 
fremden  kann  dem  Ubersetzer  das  Wissen  anderer  zu  Hilfe  kommen;  bei 
der  eigenen  ist  er  ausschliesslich  auf  sein  personliches  Konnen  angewiesen, 
Nur  als  einen  weiteren  Beleg  fiir  diese  Behauptung  fiihre  ich  die  Tatsache 
an,  dass  ein  und  dieselbe  Person  zwar  aus  mehreren  Sprachen,  aber 
keineswegs  in  mehrere  Sprachen  kunstlerisch  iibersetzen  kann." 

»"Cf.  Letter  of  Charles  T.  Congdon,  New  York  Tribune,  December  20, 
1878:  "Of  all  the  literary  men  whom  I  have  known,  I  should  speak  of 
him  (»,  e..  Bayard  Taylor)  as  the  least  afraid  of  work." 


CHAPTER  II 
Concerning  Bayard  Taylor's  Theory  of  Translation 

Bayard  Taylor  had  a  theory  of  translation.  It  will  be 
found  set  forth  in  certain  of  his  letters/  in  his  review  of 
Bryant's  translation  of  the  Iliad/  but  with  most  emphasis 
in  the  prefaces  of  the  First  and  Second  Part  of  his  "  Faust." 
Some  of  the  principles  involved  by  his  theory  Taylor  enun- 
ciates with  so  much  ardor,  that  his  tone  appears  frankly  con- 
troversial; we  shall  discuss  those  principles  last. 

Among  those  qualities  which  Taylor  believed  to  be  es- 
sential to  an  excellent  translation  were  these : 

I.  "  That  abnegation  of  the  translator's  personality  through 
which  alone  the  original  author  can  receive  justice."^  In 
this  particular  Taylor  strove  to  practice  what  he  preached. 
He  wrote  to  Mr.  Stedman,  after  the  appearance  of  the 
"  Faust " :  "  The  difference  you  notice  between  MS.  and  print 
is  partly  owing  to  the  severe  final  revision,  in  which  I  tested 
every  word  once  more  and  sternly  struck  out  whatever  seemed 
to  have  the  least  reflection  of  me,  though  it  might  have  been 
more  agreeable  to  eye  and  ear.  I  can  see  nothing,  now,  that 
is  not  Goethe."*  Taylor  commends  Brooks  for  the  "abne- 
gation of  the  translator's  own  tastes  and  habits  of  thought," 

*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters.  Professor  James  Morgan  Hart,  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer,  says :  "  To  the  best  of  my  recollection,  his  (Taylor's)  letters  to 
me  did  not  embody  any  general  theory  of  translation;  only  his  and  my 
opinions  on  the  accuracy  of  certain  of  his  renderings.  Having  handled 
his  correspondence  here,  to  get  it  in  chronological  sequence,  I  retain  a 
vague  general  impression  of  the  growth  and  movement  of  his  mind.  And 
this  vague  impression  prompts  me  to  say  that  his  translation-theory  can 
be  got  only  from  a  careful  study  of  his  earlier  correspondence  with  his 
intimate  friends,  George  H.  Boker,  Stoddard,  Stedman,  etc."  The  letters 
of  which  Professor  Hart  speaks  are  all  at  Cornell,  but  Mrs.  Bayard 
Taylor  refuses  to  have  them  inspected  by  any  person  during  her  life. 

^  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  258. 

*  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  258, 

*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  548. 

19 


20 

for  his  "reverent  desire  to  present  the  original  in  its  purest 
form."^  Elsewhere  he  writes :  "  We  reckon  it  as  one  of  the 
great  excellences  of  Mr.  Bryant's  version  (i.  e.,  of  the  Iliad), 
that  it  suggests  nothing  of  the  individual  manner  of  the  trans- 
lator, except,  indeed,  those  pure  artistic  qualities  which  are 
above  all  individual  characteristics  of  genius."^ 

2.  "A  translator  should  have  a  nearly  equal  knowledge  of 
both  languages,  in  order  to  get  that  spirit  above  and  beyond 
the  words  which  simple  literalness  will  never  give.  The  best 
condition  is  that  in  which  one  knows  both  languages  so  well 
that  he  does  not  need  to  break  his  head  in  the  hunt  for  words, 
but  keeps  his  best  strength  for  that  part  of  the  thought  which 
subtly  expresses  itself  in  metre  and  harmony."''  Relative  to 
this  point  Taylor  wrote  in  another  place:  "You  will  see  that 
my  object — not  only  here  but  throughout — is  to  reproduce 
measure  and  rhyme,  and  also  the  rhythmical  tone  or  sfimmung 
of  the  original.  My  only  charge  against  Mr.  Brooks  is  that 
he  neglects  the  latter  quality,  which  is  something  apart  from 
the  mere  scansion."^ 

3.  "The  first  draft  of  the  work  requires  warmth;  the  re- 
vision, coolness."^ 

4.  It  takes  a  poet  to  reproduce  a  poet.  Taylor,  in  com- 
menting on  Lord  Derby's  translation  of  Homer,  says :  " .  .  . 
he  has  missed  those  subtle  graces,  those  fortunate  strokes  of 
expression,  which  only  a  poet  can  adequately  recognize  and 
only  a  poet  can  reproduce."^^  Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  "the 
gulf  .  .  .  which  always  opens  between  the  best  results  of 
Labor  and  Taste,  and  the  achievements  of  that  gift  which 
is  born  and  never  to  be  acquired."^^ 

"Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  iv. 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  274. 

'  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  506. 

*  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  520. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  507. 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  261. 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  268.  Critics  on  the  whole  seem  to  agree 
with  Taylor  that  it  takes  a  poet  to  translate  a  poet.  It  is  of  interest 
therefore  to  record  the  opinion  of  two  who  are  of  contrary  mind.  Cf. 
Dr.  Gustav  Week,  Principien  der  Ubersetzungskunst,  p.  6 ;  "  Congenialitat 
der  Naturen  ist  das  Wunschenswertheste ;  das  Geringste,  dass  der  Uber- 


21 

5-  "  With  regard  to  metrical  form,  we  presume  no  one  will 
deny  that  that  of  the  author  must  be  chosen,  where  the  trans- 
lator's language  will  admit  of  it  without  too  great  a  sacrifice."^^ 

6.  "  The  labor  of  translation "  must  be  "  effectually  con- 
cealed."^^ 

7.  Taylor  approves  "...  purity  of  diction,  the  balance  and 
harmony  of  rhythm,  variety  of  movement,  and  that  native 
poetic  instinct  which  combines  the  simple  and  the  picturesque, 
the  bare  prosaic  fact  and  its  dignified  expression."^* 

8.  The  original  must  be  rendered  in  words  which  are  not 
alone  literal  but  also  equivalent.  Taylor  says  of  Brooks's 
"  Faust " :  "  The  care  and  conscience  with  which  the  work  had 
been  performed  were  so  apparent,  that  I  now  state  with  re- 
luctance what  then  seemed  to  me  to  be  its  only  deficiencies — 
a  lack  of  the  lyrical  fire  and  fluency  of  the  original  in  some 
passages,  and  an  occasional  lowering  of  the  tone  through 
the  use  of  words  which  are  literal,  but  not  equivalent."^^ 

9.  The  translator's  "task  is  not  simply  mechanical;  he 
must  feel,  and  be  guided  by,  a  secondary  inspiration.  Sur- 
rendering himself  to  the  full  possession  of  the  spirit  which 
shall  speak  through  him,  he  receives,  also,  a  portion  of  the 
same  creative  power."^^ 

setzer  selbst  ein  Stuck  Poet  sei."  Cf.  also  Dr.  Johannes  Ehlers,  W&rin 
hesteht  die  Uebersetsungskunstf  p.  7  f . :  "  Kein  Uebersetzer  bedarf  des 
schopferischen  Talentes  fiir  das,  was  er  nachzubilden  beginnt,  aber  tiefere 
Kunde  davon  muss  er  besitzen.  So  braucht  der  Uebersetzer  des  Dichters 
keiner  dichterischen  Begabung,  wohl  aber  des  Bewusstseins  fiir  das 
Dichterische,  der  vernunftmassigen  Erkenntniss  von  der  Art  der  Dicht- 
kunst.  Ware  er  ein  Dichter,  so  wiirde  er  zur  eigentlichen  Uebersetzungs- 
kunst  weniger  berufen  sein,  wiirde  sich  mehr  zur  freien  getrieben  fiihlen, 
die  zwar  auch  noch  nicht  die  Gabe  des  urspriinglichen  Schaffens  voraussetzt, 
aber  doch  der  Einbildungskraft  mehr  Raum  gestattet,  da  sie  nur  das 
Gesetzbuch  der  Darstellungskunst  anerkennt  und  darauf  verzichtet  den 
Anforderungen  der  Sprachwissenschaft  zu  geniigen.  Die  Erfahrung  lehrt, 
dass  schopferisch  weniger  Begabte  sich  vorziiglich  und  mit  dem  besten 
Erf  olge  der  Kunst  des  Nachbildens  weihen ;  die  Romer  begannen  damit 
ihre  Litteratur,  sie  waren  kein  sehr  erfindsames  Volk ;  und  die  Leistungen 
eines  Schlegel  in  dieser  Richtung  verehren  wir  weit  hoher  als  was  er  selbst- 
schaffend  hervorgebracht." 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  261. 

"  Cf.  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  271. 

"  Cf .  Essays  and  Notes,  p.  274  f, 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  iv. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  viii. 


22 

Up  to  this  point  there  is  nothing  new  or  startling  in  Taylor's 
views  concerning  translation;  but  in  his  prefaces  to  "Faust" 
he  becomes  more  radical,  indeed,  he  grows  almost  polemical, 
when  he  comes  to  make  a  plea  for  the  principle  of  translation 
which  lay  nearest  his  heart,  when  he  insists  upon  a  lineal,^^ 
literal,  rime  and  rhythm  preserving  reproduction  of  the  poetic 
original.  He  maintains  that  there  are  "  few  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  a  nearly  literal  yet  thoroughly  rhythmical  version 
of  Faust. "'^^  That  the  public  accepts  at  all  "  the  cheaper  sub- 
stitute,"^® a  prose  translation  of  a  poetical  work,  proves 
nothing  but  that  the  "  qualities  of  the  original  work  .  .  .  can- 
not be  destroyed  by  a  test  so  violent."^"  Even  meters  selected 
arbitrarily  by  the  translator  are  not  to  be  endured.  "  The 
white  light  of  Goethe's  thought"  is  "thereby  passed  through 
the  tinted  glass  of  other  minds,  and"  assumes  "the  coloring 
of  each. "2^  To  which  one  is  tempted  to  reply  that  such  is 
the  case  in  any  version  whatsoever ;  the  white  light  of  Goethe's 

"  Cf.  unpublished  letter  to  Professor  J.  M.  Hart,  dated  March  lo,  1871 : 
"  I  have  aimed  less  at  exact  verbal  translation,  than  at  giving  the  char- 
acter and  spirit  of  the  lines" 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  iv. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xii. 

^  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xi. 

^  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  iv.  Taylor  quotes  (Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  v  f.) 
several  passages  from  Goethe  in  support  of  his  contention  for  a  metrical 
version  of  Faust.  Over  against  these  may  be  set  a  paragraph  from  the 
Eleventh  Book  of  the  Third  Part  of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit :  "  Ich  ehre 
den  Rhythmus  wie  den  Reim,  wodurch  Poesie  erst  zur  Poesie  wird,  aber 
das  eigentlich  tief  und  griindlich  Wirksame,  das  wahrhaft  Ausbildende  und 
Fordernde  ist  dasjenige,  was  vom  Dichter  iibrig  bleibt,  wenn  er  in  Prosa 
ubersetzt  wird.  Dann  bleibt  der  reine  vollkommene  Gehalt,  den  uns  ein 
blendendes  Aeussere  oft,  wenn  er  fehlt,  vorzuspiegeln  weiss  und,  wenn 
er  gegenwartig  ist,  verdeckt.  .  .  .  Nur  will  ich  noch,  zu  Gunsten  meines 
Vorschlages,  an  Luthers  Bibeltibersetzung  erinnern :  denn  dass  dieser 
treffliche  Mann  ein  in  dem  verschiedensten  Stile  verfasstes  Werk  und 
dessen  dichterischen,  geschichtlichen,  gebietenden,  lehrenden  Ton  uns  in 
der  Muttersprache  wie  aus  einem  Gusse  iiberlieferte,  hat  die  Religion  mehr 
gefordert,  als  wenn  er  die  Eigentiimlichkeiten  des  Originals  im  einzelnen 
hatte  nachbilden  wollen.  Vergebens  hat  man  nachher  sich  mit  dem  Buche 
Hiob,  den  Psalmen,  und  anderen  Gesangen  bemiiht,  sie  uns  in  ihrer 
poetischen  Form  geniessbar  zu  machen.  Fiir  die  Menge,  auf  die  gewirkt 
werden  soil,  bleibt  eine  schlichte  Uebertragung  immer  die  beste.  Jene 
kritischen  Uebersetzungen,  die  mit  dem  Original  wetteifern,  dienen  eigent- 
lich nur  zur  Unterhaltung  der  Gelehrten  unter  einander." 


23 

thought  still  passes  through  the  tinted  glass  of  other  minds; 
that  is  inevitably  the  nature  of  translation. 

Taylor  insists  with  such  excess  of  warmth  upon  the  repro- 
duction of  the  original  rimes  and  meters,  he  is  so  compla- 
cently satisfied  that  he  has  "very  nearly"  achieved  "a  rigid, 
unyielding  adherence  to  every  foot,  line,  and  rhyme  of  the 
German  original "  'P  and  he  assumes  an  attitude  of  such  toler- 
ant superiority  toward  those  persons  who  had  done  "Faust" 
into  prose  or  into  arbitrary  meters  that  he  might  readily  ap- 
pear to  believe  that  he  had  found  in  fidelity  to  form  a  panacea 
for  all  the  ills  of  translating;  a  complete  formula  for  the  per- 
fect transference  of  literature  from  one  language  to  another. 
At  any  rate  Taylor,  by  reason  of  his  prefaces,  seemed  to 
many  critics  to  imagine  that  poetry  resides  exclusively  in  form, 
and  that  consequently  he  who  caught  the  form,  caught  the 
poetry  too.  To  these  critics  fidelity  to  form  was  Taylor's 
fetish;  to  them  his  pronouncements  were  little  short  of  a 
challenge. 

One  of  these  critics,  writing  in  the  Nation,  shall  speak 
for  himself.  He  says :  "  Mr.  Taylor's  translation  of  the 
'  Faust '  is  prefaced  by  a  plea  for  a  version  which  shall  re- 
tain the  *  form,'  of  the  original.  This  '  form '  consists  in  the 
metres  and  rhymes,  he  would  seem  to  say,  and  a  version 
which  follows  the  metres  of  the  original  as  closely  as  the 
relation  between  the  English  language  and  the  German  allows, 
will,  he  thinks,  be  a  far  better  rendering  of  the  poem  than 
any  literal  version  can  be.  He  would  seem  to  hold  that  a 
literal  version  is  ipso  facto  prosaic,  and  that  a  metrical  version 
is  very  likely,  in  virtue  of  its  metres  merely,  to  be  a  more 
poetical  version  than  any  version  in  prose.  He  is  even  at 
pains  to  talk  at  some  considerable  length  of  the  conserva- 
tism of  our  literary  standards,  and  of  the  underrated  re- 
sources of  English  poetry  in  the  matter  of  dactyls,  and  so 
on;  as  if  dactyls  and  iambs  and  trochees  and  all  the  rest  of 
them  had  not  figured  for  generations  in  English  literature, 
and  in  text-books  that  teach  the  art  of  English  composition 
to  boys  and  girls  at  school.    No  one  would  think  of  denying 

^  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xv. 


24 

what  Mr.  Taylor  is  strenuous  to  assert — the  necessary  con- 
nection of  rhythm  with  poetry;  but  there  are  always  multi- 
tudes of  people  who,  asserting  this,  and  having  no  understand- 
ing of  its  meaning,  afford  proof  the  most  conclusive  that  to 
any  rhythms  or  rhymes,  however  elaborate,  it  is  poetry  alone 
that  can  give  the  least  value.  '  If  you  are  literal  in  translat- 
ing,' Mr.  Taylor  would  say,  '  the  "  form "  vanishes,  and  "  no 
one  familiar  with  rhythmical  expression  through  the  needs 
of  his  own  nature"  will  say  that  the  form  of  a  poem  is  of 
secondary  importance.'  To  this  the  reply  of  the  literalists 
would  be,  that  the  '  form '  of  a  poem  cannot  be  said  to  re- 
side in  its  metres,  but  may  with  far  more  truth  be  said  to 
reside  in  such  choice  and  such  presentation  of  certain  truths  of 
nature  and  life  as  shall  make  them  beautifully  affecting,  and 
so,  instructive  while  delightful.  The  objection,  they  would 
say,  to  trying  to  give  the  superficial  form  is  that  the  dif- 
ference in  languages  is  such  that  you  cannot  at  once  make 
with  two  of  them  the  same  music  and  express  the  same 
thoughts;  and  the  temptation  is  to  sacrifice  the  thought  to 
the  music,  while  the  best  result  of  the  attempt,  except  in  some 
lucky  instances  of  very  rare  occurrence,  is  to  make  the  thought 
concede  a  little  to  the  music,  and  the  music  a  little  to  the 
thought,  so  that  definiteness  of  meaning  is  sure  to  lose  some- 
thing, is  likely  to  lose  much,  and  so  also  are  the  sweetness 
and  vagueness  of  suggestion  sure  to  vanish  away.  However, 
we  did  not  intend  to  be  led  into  any  discussion  of  a  question 
so  long  mooted  and  so  incapable  of  settlement  as  we  have 
already  admitted  the  question  of  the  best  theory  of  transla- 
tion to  be.  In  the  particular  case  of  Mr.  Taylor,  the  com- 
paratively new  phase  of  the  controversy  which  he  represents 
we  thought  it  worth  while  to  note.  That  a  foreign  poet  should 
be  so  brought  over  to  us  that  we  may  regard  him  as  our 
own;  that  the  translator  should  give  us  poetical  equivalents 
rather  than  require  us  to  transport  ourselves  over  to  the  for- 
eign poet  and  adopt  his  situation;  but  that  the  translator 
should  as  often  as  possible  give  us  precisely  the  same  thing 
that  the  foreign  poet  gives  his  native  auditors,  and  not  put 
us  off  with  an  English  equivalent  for  the  German  or  Italian 


25 

or  French  original — this  is  one  of  the  several  accustomed 
views  of  the  translator's  duty  and  as  such  may  well  be  al- 
lowed to  pass  without  more  of  fruitless  challenging  and  col- 
loquy. Not  so,  however,  as  we  think,  with  Mr.  Taylor's 
variation  of  the  general  term.  This,  it  seems  to  us,  it  will  be 
well  for  many  of  us  to  consider  carefully.  To  us,  ourselves, 
it  seems  to  lay  inordinate  stress  upon  the  mechanics  of  poetry, 
and  to  be  capable  of  doing  harm.  To  get  men  of  our  race 
and  time  to  think  enough  about  '  form '  is  no  doubt  very  diffi- 
cult, and  to  accomplish  it  would,  no  doubt,  be  very  well.  But 
to  let  ourselves  be  bedevilled  by  intricacies  of  construction 
and  then  talk  about  'art'  as  some  of  us  do,  is  as  much  like 
caring  for  'form'  as  cutting  a  tree  into  wooden  Nuremberg 
toys  is  like  saving  it  alive  and  working  with  spade  and  prun- 
ing knife  in  assistance  of  the  elemental  forces  which  shape  it 
in  accordance  with  the  natural  law  of  its  growth. "^^ 

It  can  be  shown,  however,  I  believe,  that  Taylor  himself 
did  not  imagine  that  fidelity  to  form  provided  an  infallible 
solution  for  all  the  problems  of  translation,  or  that  form  is 
poetry,  or  that  he  who  catches  the  form  catches  the  poetry  with 
it.  If  we  forsake  the  pretentious  and  apparently  unduly  dog- 
matic prefaces  for  more  obscure  corners  of  Taylor's  "  Faust," 
we  shall  find  that  he  makes  concessions  which  seriously  modify 
his  theory  of  translation;  so  much  so,  that  Taylor  too,  whose 
confident  prefaces  had  promised  much,  is  found  in  the  event 
to  leave  us  without  any  hard  and  fast  formula  whereby  the 
flawless  translation  may  be  unerringly  obtained.  To  begin 
with,  he  admits,  albeit  with  an  amusing  air  of  wonderment 
shining  through  his  words,  that  the  atmosphere,  nay,  even 
the  movement  of  a  given  passage  may  be  reproduced  where 
the  original  meter  has  been  ignored.  He  says :  "  Shelley 
translates  the  couplet  with  great  spirit : 

*  The  giant-snouted  crags,  ho  !  ho  ! 
How  they  snort  and  how  they  blow !  * 

His  version  of  the  Walpurgis-Night,  although  not  very  faith- 
ful, and  containing  frequent  lines  of  his  own  interpolation, 

^' Cf .  Nation,  March  23,  1871,  p.  201  f. 


26 

nevertheless  admirably  reproduces  the  hurrying  movement  and 
the  weird  atmosphere  of  the  original.  This  is  the  more  re- 
markable since  he  disregards,  for  the  most  part,  the  German 
metres."^* 

Secondly,  he  quotes,  if  not  with  approval  at  any  rate  with- 
out dissent,  a  passage  from  Diintzer  and  a  xenion  which  ex- 
pressly state  that  all  things  poetical  are  not  achieved  by  meter 
and  rime,  that  is,  by  form  alone.^*' 

And  thirdly,  he  grants  that  he  is  on  occasion  unable  to  apply 
his  lineal,  literal,  rime  and  rhythm  preserving  formula;  or 
having  applied  it,  the  result  somehow  fell  short  of  what  might 
be  considered  a  good  translation.  He  is  unable,  he  says,  to 
apply  his  theory  in  the  case  of  the  line : 

Es  irrt  der  Mensch  so  lang  er  strebt.** 

Far  from  reproducing  it,  "  in  English  without  the  slightest 
change  of  meaning,  measure,  or  rhyme  "^^  he  finds  it  "  impos- 
sible to  give  the  full  meaning  of  these  words  ...  in  a  single 
line. "2^  He  is  further  unable  to  apply  his  theory  in  the  case 
of  the  lines: 

Faust 
Schlange!  Schlange! 

Mephistopheles  fur  sich 
Gelt !  dass  ich  dich  f  ange !  " 

Taylor  says :  "  In  this  exclamation,  and  in  the  aside  of  Mephis- 
topheles, I  have  omitted  the  rhyme  of  the  original,  which  could 
not  possibly  be  reproduced  without  losing  the  subtile  suggest- 

**  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  306,  note  130. 

"Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  319,  note  155:  "Goethe  undoubtedly  herewith 
designates  those  botching  poetasters,  who,  without  the  slightest  idea  that 
every  living  poem  must  flow  spontaneously  from  within  as  an  organic 
whole,  miserably  tack  and  stitch  rhymes  together,  and  thus  produce 
malformations  which  they  attempt  to  pass  off  as  creations  of  beauty." 
Diintzer. 

"  Everjrthing  in  this  poem  is  perfect,  thought  and  expression, 
Rhythm :  but  one  thing  it  lacks ;  'tis  not  a  poem  at  all." 

«Cf.  1.317. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 

"  Cf .  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  228,  note  11. 

»Cf.  11.  3324-3325. 


27 

iveness  of  the  words."^^  In  the  "  Konig  in  Thule  "  Taylor  is 
once  more  unable  to  be  quite  faithful  to  form,^^  and  yet  that 
lyric  was  perverse  enough  to  turn  out  the  best  thing  in  Taylor's 
whole  translation. 

There  are  still  other  places,  not  specified  in  the  notes,  where 
Taylor  has  failed  to  remain  accurately  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed by  his  original.  Thus  in  the  song  of  the  Geister,^^ 
the  original  text  shows  fifty-nine  lines,  while  Taylor  has 
sixty.     The  superfluous  line  is: 

Circling  the  islands.  (I,  60) 

The  speech  of  the  Kater  (11.  2402-2415)  contains  in  the  orig- 
inal fourteen  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  fifteen.  His  extra 
line  is : 

And  drop,  quiescent,  (I,  103) 

Margaret's  speech  (11.  4453-4459)  contains  in  the  original 
seven  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  eight.     His  extra  line  is : 

His  prey  to  discover.  (I,  209) 

Chiron's  speech  (11.  7399-7405)  has  in  the  original  seven  lines, 
of  which  Taylor  makes  eight.     The  extra  line  is: 

And  irresistibly  she  smiteth.  (II,  119) 

The  speech  of  the  Pygmaen-Alteste  (11.  7626-7643)  contains 
in  the  original  eighteen  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  nineteen. 
The  extra  line  is : 

Working  victorious.  (II,  128) 

The  speech  of  the  Generalissimus  (11.  7644-7653)  contains  in 

**  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  292,  note  no. 

'^Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xv:  "The  single  slight  liberty  I  have  taken 
with  the  lyrical  passages  is  in  Margaret's  song, — '  The  King  of  Thule,' — 
in  which,  by  omitting  the  alternate  feminine  rhymes,  yet  retaining  the 
metre,  I  was  enabled  to  make  the  translation  strictly  literal."  Cf.  also 
Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  287,  note  99:  "As  I  have  stated  in  the  Preface,  the 
feminine  rhymes  of  the  first  and  third  lines  of  each  verse  have  been 
omitted,  in  order  to  make  the  translation  strictly  literal.  ...  In  this 
instance  I  have  considered  it  especially  necessary  to  preserve  the  simplicity 
of  the  original,  and  (if  that  be  possible)  the  weird,  mystic  sweetness  of 
its  movement." 

"Cf.  11.  1447-1505. 


28 

the  original  ten  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  eleven.  The 
extra  line  is : 

Shoot  and  bring  low.  (II,  129) 

The  speech  of  the  Imsen  and  Daktyle  (11.  7654-7659)  contains 
in  the  original  six  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  seven.  The 
extra  line  is : 

Were  now  defiant.  (II,  129) 

The  speech  of  the  Nereiden  and  Tritonen  (11.  8044-8057)  con- 
tains in  the  original  fourteen  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes 
fifteen.     The  extra  line  is: 

Chains  and  jewels  hung  around  us.  (II,  145) 

The  speech  of  Faust  (11.  loi 55-101 59)  contains  in  the  original 
five  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  six.     The  extra  line  is : 

Yet  one  has  only,  when  all's  said.  (II,  232) 

There  remain  one  or  two  other  instances  where  Taylor  con- 
cedes that  he  has  not  been  altogether  faithful  to  the  form  of 
his  original.  He  says :  *'  In  this  first  chorus  I  have  been  forced 
by  the  prime  necessity  of  preserving  the  meaning,  to  leave  the 
second  line  unrhymed."^^  "  In  order  to  retain  the  rhyme,  I 
have  been  obliged  to  express  a  little  more  prominently  the 
idea  of  '  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  one  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me,* — which  is  implied 
in  the  original."^*  "  In  the  original,  the  first  of  these  names  is 
given  as  Fliegengott,  Fly-god.  For  the  sake  of  metre,  I 
have  substituted  our  familiar  Hebrew  equivalent,  Beelzebub — 
or,  more  correctly,  Baaisebub."^^  "  In  the  first  verse  (i.  e.,  of 
"  Meine  Ruh'  ist  hin"),  which  is  twice  repeated  as  a  refrain, 
I  have  been  obliged  to  choose  between  the  repetition  of  the 
word  peace  in  the  third  line  and  the  use  of  a  pronoun  which 
cannot,  as  in  the  German,  fix  its  antecedent  by  its  gender."^® 
"  The  spirit  of  this  Chorus  is  clear,  in  the  original,  but  not  the 
language.  Even  a  literal  translation  is  impossible  unless  we 
supply,   conjecturally,   the   singular   ellipses   of   the   German 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  239  f.,  note  32. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  241,  note  34. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  254  f.,  note  52. 
"Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  294,  note  113. 


29 

lines."^^  "  Every  line  is  here  (i.  e.,  in  the  verses  "  Gerettet  ist 
das  edle  died  ")  so  pregnant  with  important  meaning  that  an 
exact  rhymed  translation  becomes  nearly  impossible,  and  I 
therefore  add  the  verse  in  prose."^^ 

In  the  last  line  of  Faust's  opening  speech  in  the  Kerker- 
scene,  Taylor  (in  his  first  edition  of  1871,  and  in  all  reprints 
of  that  edition)  deliberately  avoided  the  unusual  transitive 
force  of  sogern  and  translated : 

On !  my  shrinking  only  brings  Death  more  near. 

("  Faust,"  ed.  1871,  I,  p.  292.) 

In  one  of  his  notes  ("Faust,"  ed.  1871,  I,  p.  387)  he  said: 
"The  last  line  of  Faust's  soliloquy  at  the  door:  'Fort!  Dein 
Zagen  soger t  den  Tod  heran!'  is  one  of  those  paradoxical  sen- 
tences, the  meaning  of  which  it  is  more  easy  to  feel  than  to 
reproduce.  Zogern,  like  its  English  equivalent,  is  an  intransi- 
tive verb;  but  Goethe's  forcible  use  of  it  seems  more  natural 
than  Hayward's  use  of  the  English  verb, — '  On !  Thy  irresolu- 
tion lingers  death  hitherwards ! '  This  is  strictly  literal;  yet 
Mr.  Brooks's  translation — '  On !  Thy  shrinking  slowly  hastens 
the  blow ! '  is  preferable."  Later  Taylor  changed  his  mind. 
In  the  Kennett  edition  of  his  "  Faust "  (from  1875  on)  the  line 
reads : 

On!  my  shrinking  but  lingers  Death  more  near.     (I,  207) 

"  Cf .  Faust,  II,  Notes,  p.  435  f.,  note  176.  Even  a  latter-day  Ger- 
man critic  is  tried,  like  Taylor,  by  the  diction  of  Goethe's  little  excursus 
in  the  field  of  mysticism.  Cf.  Goethe,  Sein  Leben  und  seine  Werke, 
by  Dr.  Albert  Bielschowsky,  v.  2,  p.  669,  where  Professor  Theobald 
Ziegler  of  Strassburg  says :  "  Mit  dieser  Neigung  zum  Allegorisieren  hangt 
dann  aber  auch  die  Sprache  dieses  zweiten  Teiles  zusammen  .  .  .  die 
Sprache  hat  etwas  Gespreiztes  und  Geschnorkeltes,  der  vielberufene 
'  Altersstil '  Goethes  macht  sich  wirklich  sptirbar  .  .  .  man  hore  bei  der 
Grablegung  Fausts  im  fiinften  Akt  den  Chor  der  Rosen  streuenden  Engel: 

Rosen,  ihr  blendenden    .   .    . 
Den  Ruhenden  hin. 

Ist  das  noch  einfach,  ist  das  noch  schon?  Man  wendet  noch  ein,  iiber 
den  Geschmack  sei  nicht  zu  streiten.  Gut!  Aber  dann  liesse  sich 
vielleicht  so  sagen :  Wer  den  Stil  des  ersten  Teiles  fur  schon  halt,  dera 
kann  dieser  grossartige  und  oft  recht  krause  Stil  des  zweiten  Teiles  nicht 
gefallen." 

»»  Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  459. 


30 

The  note  was  then  altered  to :  "  The  last  line  of  Faust's  solil- 
oquy at  the  door:  'Fort!  Dein  Zagen  zogert  den  Tod  her  an  I' 
is  one  of  those  paradoxical  sentences,  the  meaning  of  which  it 
is  more  easy  to  feel  than  to  reproduce.  Zogern,  like  its  English 
equivalent,  is  an  intransitive  verb;  but  Shakespeare's  example 
may  justify  me  in  using  the  verb  to  linger,  with  an  object,  as 
Goethe  uses  zogern.  The  former  expression  is  the  literal  re- 
production of  the  latter."^* 

It  seems  probable  that  Taylor  made  the  change  at  Mr.  Mac- 
donough's  suggestion,  although  he  gives  Mr.  Macdonough  no 
credit  for  it.  In  a  review  of  Taylor's  translation,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  New  York  World,  Mr.  Macdonough  had  written : 
"  The  English  version  seems  to  us  to  miss  here  the  neatest  and 
closest  phrase  (the  same  indeed  which  Hay  ward  adopts),  by 
refusing  the  expressive  word  *  linger '  with  a  transitive  force — 
a  force  unusual,  it  is  true,  but  supported  by  the  highest  author- 
ity. '  Midsummer-Night's  Dream '  gives  us :  '  How  slow  this 
old  moon  wanes !  She  lingers  my  desires.'  The  chorus  lead- 
ing in  the  second  act  of  '  Henry  the  Fifth '  bids  the  auditors 
'linger  your  patience';  and  the  last  scene  of  '  Troilus  and 
Cressida '  presents  a  couplet  involving  the  very  same  idea  and 
form  with  *  Faust's ' :  '  Let  your  brief  plagues  be  mercy.  And 
linger  not  our  sure  destructions  on.'  "**^ 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  further  that  Taylor  departs  from  his 
maxim  of  strict  fidelity  by  omitting  several  lines  of  the  original 
text.  His  first  omission  is  on  the  whole  the  most  serious. 
Taylor  ignores  the  stage  direction  which  follows  immediately 
after  line  3194  in  the  German  text.*^  This  stage  direction 
reads :  "  Margarete  driickt  ihm  die  Hande,  macht  sich  los  und 
lauft  weg.  Er  steht  einen  Augenblick  in  Gedanken,  dann  folgt 
er  ihr."  It  is  important  because  it  is  one  of  three  hints  which 
Goethe  gives  us  that  Faust  hesitated  before  accomplishing 

"  Cf .  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  331,  note  173. 

"  Cf.  New  York  World,  February  3,  1871. 

*^  Mrs.  Bayard  Taylor  writes  me  in  this  connection :  "  The  omission  of 
the  stage  direction  on  p.  144,  ed.  of  '98,  must  have  been  done  purposely 
because  the  ed.  of  '70-71  also  omits  the  same.  Why  I  can't  tell,  except 
that  it  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  a  metrical  translation.(?)  " 
Taylor  did  however  translate  all  the  remaining  stage  directions. 


31 

Gretchen's  ruin.  Taylor  completely  missed  the  first  of  these 
hints  as  is  shown  by  his  incorrect  translation  of  the  line : 

Fort !  Fort !  Ich  kehre  nimmermehr,  (1.  2730) 

which  Taylor  strangely  renders : 

Go!  go!  I  never  will  retreat.  (I,  119) 

Therefore  it  is  doubly  to  be  regretted  that  he  should  have 
missed  the  second  of  these  hints  as  well. 

Taylor  omits  one  of  the  twenty-two  lines  in  the  speech  of  the 
Pulcinelli  (11.  5215-5236).  The  line  which  remains  untrans- 
lated seems  to  be : 

Einher  zu  laufen.  (1.  5226) 

The  speech  of  Helena  (11.  8524-8559)  contains  in  the  original 
thirty-six  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  thirty-five.  He  leaves 
untranslated : 

Erobert  bin  ich,  ob  gefangen  weiss  ich  nicht.     (1.  8530) 

The  speech  of  Faust  (11.  10212-10233)  contains  in  the  original 
twenty-two  lines,  of  which  Taylor  makes  twenty-one.  He 
leaves  untranslated: 

Sie  mag  sich  noch  so  ubermiithig  regen.        (1.  10224) 

In  his  first  edition  of  1 870-1 871  Taylor  omitted  lines  9069- 
9070: 

Chor 
Aber  wir  ? 

Phorkyas 
Ihr  wisst  es  deutlich,  seht  vor  Augen  ihren  Tod, 
Merkt  den  eurigen  da  drinne;  nein,  zu  helfen  ist  euch  nicht. 

These  lines  were  included,  however,  in  the  Kennett  edition  of 
Taylor's  "  Faust "  from  1875  on.    Finally  Taylor  omits  1. 10524 : 

Er  ist  behend,  reisst  alias  mit  sich  fort. 

For  this  last  omission  it  is  hardly  fair  to  hold  Taylor  respon- 
sible, since  the  German  edition  of  "  Faust "  on  which  he  based 
his  translation  omits  it  also.'*^ 

*^The  German  text  on  which  Taylor  based  his  translation  is  a  slender 
i6mo.  volume  containing  both  parts  of  "  Faust,"  although  a  careless 
binder  has  inscribed  /  Theil  on  the  back  of  the  book.      The  title  page 


32 

Once,  doubtless  when  temporarily  abandoned  by  his  logical 
faculty,  Taylor  justifies  violence  done  perforce  to  his  principle 
of  formal  fidelity,  by  violence  done  deliberately  to  that  same 
principle.  Thus  he  says :  "If,  in  two  or  three  instances  I 
have  left  a  line  unrhymed,  I  have  balanced  the  omission  by 
giving  rhymes  to  other  lines  which  stand  unrhymed  in  the 
original  text."*^ 

On  the  other  hand  Taylor  applies  his  lineal,  literal,  rime 
and  rhythm  preserving  formula  and  then  admits  that  the  result 

reads :  Faust  |  Eine  Tragodie  |  von  |  Goethe  ]  Beide  Theile  in  Einem 
Bande.  |  Stuttgart  und  Augsburg.  |  J.  G.  Cotta'scher  Verlag  |  1856.  It 
may  be  stated  here  that  the  volume  contains  nothing  especially  helpful  to 
the  student  of  Taylor's  translation.  Taylor  has  drawn  (in  Part  I,  not  in 
Part  II)  short  horizontal  lines  over  against  such  lines  of  the  text  as  he 
afterward  annotated.  On  p.  14  he  corrects  the  misprint  Ende  to  Erde. 
On  p.  16  at  the  end  of  the  Prolog  im  Himmel  he  has  written  "ten  notes." 
Against  the  first  four  lines  of  the  opening  monologue  (p.  17)  he  has 
written  "  Marlow."  At  the  bottom  of  page  25  he  has  written  "  ist  Ed."  He 
has  starred  the  line :  Den  leichten  Tag  gesucht  und  in  der  Damm'rung 
schwer  (p.  27),  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  he  has  written  "  *lichten 
(Hartung)."      Against  the  lines  : 

Falsch  Gebild  und  Wort 
Verandern  Sinn  und  Ort! 
Seyd  hier  und  dort!  (p.  86) 

he  has  written  "  legend."  On  p.  167  in  the  upper  right  hand  margin  he 
has  written  the  numbers  "44"  and  "176."  He  has  drawn  a  perpendicular 
line  against  the  lines : 

Er  ist,  wie  ich  von  ihm  vernommen, 

Gar  wundersam  nur  halb  zur  Welt  gekommen. 

Ihm    fehlt   es   nicht   an    geistigen    Eigenschaften, 

Doch  gar  zu  sehr  am  greiflich  Tiichtighaften.  (p.  319) 

He  has  underlined  the  words  "  geistigen "  and  "  greiflich  Tiichtighaften," 
starred  the  passage  and  written  below  "  *Goethe."  He  has  written  beside 
the  stage  direction :  "  Der  Schauplatz  verandert  sich,"  p.  367,  "  III  "  and 
at  the  bottom  of  the  page  "  Eck  II,  193."  All  Taylor's  notes  were  written 
with  pencil. 

*'  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xv.  Cf.  also  review  of  Taylor's  Faust  in 
the  Aldine,  March,  1871,  "  Nor,  having  once  enunciated  and  accepted  the 
law  of  careful  observance  of  rhyme,  has  the  author  a  very  good  grace  in 
putting  forward  his  excuse,  in  the  preface,  that  his  occasional  omission, 
in  the  translation,  of  rhymes  where  they  belonged  in  the  original  is  counter- 
balanced by  his  frequently  supplying  them  where  they  do  not  exist.  The 
amateur  of  Eliana  will  be  apt  to  recall  poor  Charles  Lamb's  stuttering 
apology  when  scolded  for  coming  to  his  desk  so  late  mornings — *  But  then 
you  see,  I  always  g-g-go  away  so  early  afternoons.* " 


33 

is  not  all  that  it  should  be.  There  are  still  some  things  without 
the  realm  of  fidelity  the  most  strict.  He  says :  "  The  graceful 
measure  of  the  song  (i.  e.,  the  Soldatenlied),  which  neverthe- 
less expresses  the  roughest  realism  of  German  peasant-life, 
can  only  be  approximately  given  in  another  language."**  "  The 
rhythmical  translation  of  this  song  (t.  e.^  the  song  of  the 
Geister) — which,  without  the  original  rhythm  and  rhyme, 
would  lose  nearly  all  its  value — is  a  head  and  heart  breaking 
task.  I  can  only  say,  that  after  returning  to  it  again  and  again, 
during  a  period  of  six  years,  I  can  offer  nothing  better."**^ 
".  .  .  the  reader  may  study  her  {i.  e.,  Gretchen's)  character 
for  himself,  although  an  indescribable  bloom  and  freshness  is 
lost  in  transferring  her  story  to  another  language."*^  "  I  have 
been  obliged,  by  the  exigency  of  rhyme,  to  express  the  latter 
phrase  in  different  words;  yet  this  is  one  of  those  instances 
where  no  English  words,  though  they  may  perfectly  convey 
the  meaning,  can  possibly  carry  with  them  the  fulness  and  ten- 
derness of  sentiment  which  we  feel  in  the  original.  '  Ich 
werde  Zeit  genug  an  euch  zu  denken  haben  "  suggests  in  some 
mysterious  way,  a  contrast  between  Faust's  place  in  life  and 
Margaret's,  between  the  love  of  man  and  that  of  woman,  which 
the  words  do  not  seem  to  retain  when  translated."*^  "  They 
{i.  e.,  the  lines  of  the  lyric  "  Meine  Ruh'  ist  hin  ")  are,  indeed, 
articulate  sighs ;  the  lines  are  almost  as  short  and  simple  as 
the  first  speech  of  a  child,  and  the  least  deviation  from  either 
the  meaning  or  the  melody  of  the  original  (even  the  change 
of  meine  into  my,  in  the  first  line)  takes  away  something  of  its 
indescribable  sadness  and  strength  of  desire."*®  "  If  the  revery 
at  the  spinning-wheel  be  a  sigh  of  longing,  this  {i.  e.,  the  lyric 
"Ach  neige")  is  a  cry  for  help,  equally  wonderful  in  words 
and  metre;  yet  with  a  character  equally  elusive  when  we  at- 
tempt to  reproduce  it  in  another  language."*"    "The  delicate 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  243,  note  39. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  257,  note  56, 
*"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  284,  note  93. 
"Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  289,  note  105. 
"  Cf .  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  294,  note  113. 
"Cf.  Faust,  I,  Notes,  p.  297  f.,  note  117. 

4 


34 

satire  of  the  line,  Dock  das  Antike  find'  ich  su  lebendig,  is  lost 
in  translation."*^**     "  The  original, 

Denn  wo  Natur  im  reinen  Kreise  waltet, 

Ergreifen  all  (sic)  Welten  sich, — 

is  one  of  those  pregnant  expressions  which  make  the  translator 
despair, — for,  the  more  thoroughly  he  is  penetrated  with  the 
meaning,  the  less  does  it  seem  possible  to  express  that  meaning 
in  any  words."^^ 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  majority  of  the  above  quotations 
are  from  the  First  Part.  From  this  it  may  be  inferred  that 
Taylor  was  able  to  apply  his  formula  and  achieve  results  with 
more  satisfaction  to  himself  in  the  Second  Part.  He  de- 
clares that  this  really  was  the  case.  "  The  original  metres  are 
more  closely  reproduced  than  even  in  the  First  Part,  for  the 
predominance  of  symbol  and  aphorism,  in  the  place  of  senti- 
ment and  passion,  has,  in  this  respect,  made  my  task  more  easy ; 
and  there  are  from  beginning  to  end,  less  than  a  score  of  lines 
where  I  have  been  compelled  to  take  any  liberty  with  either 
rhythm  or  rhyme."''^ 

While  the  enthusiastic  prefaces  might  persuade  us  that 
Taylor  believed  he  had  established  in  fidelity  to  form  a  canon 
which  should  infallibly  produce  a  perfect  translation,  the  quo- 
tations just  made  show  clearly  that  on  the  one  hand  he  found 
himself  unable  at  times  to  apply  his  theory;  and  that  on  the 
other  hand  he  applied  his  theory,  transferred  the  form  and  some- 
how the  poetry  was  not  transferred  with  it.  He  could  see 
that  himself.  Taylor  had  not,  to  be  sure,  that  pessimistic  atti- 
tude as  to  the  futility  of  translation,  which  says :  "  Translation 
is  travesty,"*^^  "Das  Ubersetzen  ist  der  Tod  des  Verstand- 
nisses,"^*  which  insists  that  translation  is  synonymous  with 
making  an  ass  of  the  thing  translated.^*^     But  he  did  think,  I 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  Notes,  p.  383,  note  66. 

'^^Ci.  Faust,  II,  Notes,  p.  424,  note  118. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 

'^^  Cf.  Nation,  v.  12,  p.  201. 

"  Cf.  Cauer,  Kunst  des  Ubersetzens,  p.  4. 

"Reviewers  of  Taylor's  Faust  (cf.  Nation,  March  23,  1871,  p.  201, 
and  Harper's  Magazine,  March,  1871,  p.  623)  have  a  penchant  for  referring 
to  "  Midsummer-Night's  Dream,"  act  III,  scene  i,  where  Quince  beholds 
Bottom  "  with  an  ass's  head,"  and  exclaims :  "  Bless  thee,  Bottom !  bless 
thee!  thou  art  translated." 


35 

believe,  that  translation  is  a  thing  to  be  sighed  over  regretfully, 
a  thing  that  is  cut  off  by  a  very  considerable  interval  from  the 
precincts  of  perfection. 

In  his  Notes  Taylor  discusses  Goethe's  composition  of 
"  Faust "  II,  act  II,  scenes  1-2,  and  says :  "  He  {%.  e.,  Goethe) 
translates  his  thoughts  from  the  natural  language  of  Age  into 
that  of  Youth,  and  as  in  all  translation,  he  is  not  quite  equal 
to  the  original."®^  And  in  one  of  his  letters  Taylor  wrote :  "  It 
would  be  impossible  for  me  to  translate  my  own  German  proem, 
because  it  was  conceived  in  German.  I  could  only  give  the  same 
thought,  in  English — although  my  own — in  paler  colors."^^  As 
between  translating  that  which  one  has  conceived  oneself  in  a 
foreign  tongue,  and  that  which  some  other  person  has  con- 
ceived in  that  tongue,  it  appears  that  such  advantage  as  there 
may  be,  must  lie  on  the  side  of  the  former.  Hence,  I  deduce 
that  Taylor  believed  translation  to  be  at  best  a  reproduction  in 
"  paler  colors." 

Upon  his  own  achievement  in  translating  "  Faust "  Taylor 
placed  in  certain  private  letters  a  more  modest  estimate  than 
he  does  in  either  of  his  prefaces.  On  one  occasion  he  wrote : 
"  I  freely  admit  that  nothing  in  it  {i.  e.,  Taylor's  translation  of 
"  Faust ")  equals  the  original,  and  that  there  is  no  passage 
where  some  of  the  German  bloom  is  not  lost  in  the  English 
words."^^ 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  Taylor  in  his  prefaces  is  led  away 
by  his  enthusiasm  to  state  in  terms  too  exclusive,  too  dogmatic, 
his  theory  of  formal  fidelity.  His  statements,  I  believe,  appear 
more  categorical  than  he  intended  they  should.  Beyond  this 
error  in  judgment,  Taylor  is,  in  his  prefaces,  twice  guilty  of 
fallacy  by  implication.  In  his  effort  to  show  "  that  there  is  no 
sufficient  excuse  for  an  unmetrical  translation  of  Faust  "^® 
Taylor  tells  us  that  the  Germans  have  made  some  extraor- 
dinarily fine  translations  of  English  poems.     He  is  even  at 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  Notes,  p.  364,  note  53. 

"  Extract  from  a  letter  to  Professor  James  Morgan  Hart,  quoted  by 
A.  H.  Smyth  in  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  187. 

^  Extract  from  an  unpublished  letter  to  Professor  James  Morgan  Hart, 
dated  February  19,  1871. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  ix. 


36 

pains  to  quote  several  very  excellent  specimens.  The  implica- 
tion is,  the  Germans  are  uncommonly  successful  in  making 
translations  from  the  English,  therefore  the  English  are  (or  at 
any  rate  ought  to  be)  uncommonly  successful  in  making  trans- 
lations from  the  German.  The  implication  is  fallacious.  It 
is  contrary  to  fact. 

Five  years  before  Taylor  published  his  "  Faust,"  the  actual 
state  of  the  case  was  succinctly  set  forth  by  an  English  re- 
viewer, who  said :  "  A  translator  of  German  deals  with  metres 
and  with  verbal  roots  which  are  common  to  both  languages, 
and  a  sanguine  beginner  in  the  art  at  first  thinks  it  possible 
to  preserve  both  sound  and  the  sense  of  the  cognate  original. 
There  are  English  and  Scotch  ballads  which  may  be  found 
almost  unchanged  in  several  Low-German  dialects,  and  mod- 
ern German  translations  of  Shakspeare  display  a  photographic 
fidelity  to  the  text,  although  much  of  the  spirit  unavoidably 
evaporates.  The  converse  process  of  turning  German  verse 
into  English  is  far  more  difficult."®'* 

Before  considering  why  the  converse  process  is  far  more 
difficult,  we  will  state  the  second  fallacy  by  implication  to  be 
discovered  in  Taylor's  preface.  Taylor  says :  "  The  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  a  nearly  literal  translation  of  Faust  in  the 
original  metres  have  been  exaggerated,  because  certain  affini- 
ties between  the  two  languages  have  not  been  properly  con- 
sidered."®^ In  "  Faust "  especially  there  is  "  a  mutual  ap- 
proach of  the  two  languages  .  .  .  many  lines  of  Faust  may 
be  repeated  in  English  without  the  slightest  change  of  mean- 
ing, measure  or  rhyme.  .  .  .  The  flow  of  Goethe's  verse  is 
sometimes  so  similar  to  that  of  the  corresponding  English 
metre,  that  not  only  its  harmonies  and  caesural  pauses,  but 
even  its  punctuation,  may  be  easily  retained."®^  A  list  is 
even  drawn  up  of  the  variety  of  ways  in  which  the  English 
tongue  leaps  to  meet  her  Teutonic  sister.®^  The  inference 
which  Taylor  would  have  us  draw  is  this :  the  German  (in  par- 

~  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  v.  19,  p.  478,  review  of  Sir  Theodore  Martin's 
Faust. 

"*  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xii  f. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 
"*  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 


37 

ticular  the  German  of  "Faust")  is  structurally  and  in  vocabu- 
lary astonishingly  like  the  English.  It  is  of  course  amiable  in 
Taylor  to  insist  so  eloquently  upon  this  point,  for  the  better  he 
proves  it,  the  more  he  lessens  his  own  desert.  But  the  facts 
of  the  case  are  against  him.®* 

The  first  fact  is  this :  "  So  large  is  the  number  of  for- 
eign words  in  English,  that  from  a  certain  point  of  view  it 
might  at  first  be  supposed  our  language  had  lost  its  Teutonic 
character.  If,  for  example,  we  compute  the  foreign  element 
in  one  of  our  English  dictionaries,  it  will  be  found  to  be  far 
in  excess  of  the  number  of  native  words."®^  "As  to  this 
tendency  to  borrow  and  use  foreign  words,  however,  nations 
have  radically  differed.  Some  have  with  freedom  adopted 
words  from  all  languages  with  which  there  has  been  the 
slightest  contact.  The  conservatism  of  others  has  withstood 
the  incorporation  of  any  considerable  loan  element  even  from 
the  most  friendly  nation.  The  first  class  has  one  of  its  most 
striking  examples  in  English,  while  to  the  second  class  belongs 
modem  German."^® 

"*  Cf.  Athenaeum,  no.  2284,  p.  171:  "Of  the  resources  of  our  language 
for  translation  of  German  verse,  Mr.  Taylor  has  a  very  high  estimate.  He 
finds  it  as  easy  to  refer  to  examples  of  facility  as  we  find  it  to  give  proofs 
of  difficulty."  Cf.  also  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370: 
"  We  think  that  Mr.  Taylor,  in  opposing  in  his  preface  the  views  of  Mr. 
Lewes,  unduly  underrates  the  organic  differences  of  the  two  languages, 
as  well  as  the  limit  set  to  all  endeavours  to  transplant  a  great  poem  from 
any  one  tongue  to  another.  Not  to  speak  of  the  characteristic  differences 
of  accent  .  .  .  the  German  possesses,  in  the  abundance  of  its  full  sustained 
vowels,  with  their  vigorous  consonantal  supports,  a  depth  of  music  which 
can  never  be  exactly  reproduced  in  the  lighter  tones  of  English."  Cf. 
also  review  of  Taylor's  Faust  in  the  Gegenwart :  "  Zuvorderst  hat  es 
den  Anschein  als  ob  Taylor,  indem  er  den  Leweschen  Ansichten  entgegen- 
tritt,  die  organische  Verschiedenheit  der  beiden  Sprachen  zu  sehr  unter- 
schatzt,  und  die  Grenzen  nicht  erkennt,  die  naturgemass  alien  Ueber- 
tragungen  grosserer  Dichtungen  aus  einer  Sprache  in  eine  andere  gezogen 
sind.  Nicht  minder  verliert  er  bei  seinen  Reimen  die  Unbiegsamkeit, 
Harte,  und  das  Unmelodische  der  englischen  Sprache  und  den  weichen 
Wohlklang,  die  Biegsamkeit  und  Vieldeutigkeit  der  deutschen  aus  den 
Augen."  This  German  reviewer  had  very  obviously  studied  his  Saturday 
Review. 

^  Cf.  O.  F.  Emerson,  History  of  the  English  Language,  New  York, 
1897,  p.  125. 

*  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  121  f.  Cf.  The  Making  of  English,  by  Henry  Bradley, 
New  York,  1904,  p.  6  f.  Mr.  Bradley  lays  emphasis  upon  the  difference 
between  the  English  and  the  German  vocabulary. 


The  second  fact  is  this :  "  Our  Modem  EngHsh  is  called  an 
analytic,  or  uninflected  tongue.  That  is,  present  English  does 
not  rely  on  inflectional  forms  for  expressing  the  various  rela- 
tions existing  between  nouns,  adjectives,  pronouns,  and  verbs."^^ 
Out  of  these  two  stubborn  facts  arise  for  the  translator  from 
German  into  English  two  (to  my  mind  almost  insuperable) 
obstacles  to  an  adequate  translation.  Bayard  Taylor  at  any 
rate  has  succeeded  in  clearing  neither  of  these  obstacles. 

Out  of  the  fact  that  English  is  strongly  tinctured  with  a 
Romance  element,  grows  the  "  Latinization "  of  "  Faust,"  as 
one  of  the  critics  (Mr.  W.  P.  Andrews)  is  pleased  to  call  it. 
Thus  Mr.  Andrews  finds  the  line : 

The  joy  (sic)  which  touched  the  verge  of  pain" 

a  very  sophisticated  rendering  for  Goethe's: 

Das  tiefe  schmerzenvolle  Gliick** 

although  he  thinks  it  "one  of  the  least  marked  variations  in 
this  direction — a  straw  which  shows  the  way  of  the  wind."^® 
Mr.  Andrews  continues :  "  Both  Mr.  Taylor  and  his  forerun- 
ner, Mr.  Brooks, — to  whom  he  owes  an  unacknowledged  debt, 
— insist  on  the  importance  of  preserving  the  metres  of  the 
original.  Mr.  Taylor  has  even  called  attention  to  the  change 
of  musical  atmosphere  with  the  entrance  of  Margaret  upon 
the  scene.  .  .  .  Mr.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Brooks  seem,  however,  to 
have  been  led  somewhat  astray  by  their  notion  that  this  atmos- 
phere was  the  result  of  Goethe's  constant  use  of  the  feminine 
rhyme,  whereas  the  distinguishing  feature  of  Goethe's  verse 
is  the  entire  absence  of  any  of  the  Latinized  and  inverted 
phrases  common  to  ordinary  literature,  and  the  absolute  di- 
rectness and  simplicity  of  his  Teutonic  speech.  The  verse 
sings  in  all  keys,  but  the  characters  speak  as  directly  and 
simply  as  if  they  had  never  heard  of  a  book.  .  .  .  From  be- 
ginning to  end  of  this  great  poem  of  12,110  lines  of  nearly 

"  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  278. 

"Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  8;  Taylor  wrote:  "The  bliss  that  touched  the  verge 
of  pain." 
~Cf.  1.   195. 
">  Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  66,  p.  733. 


39 

every  known  metre,  we  have  hardly  one  Latinized  word,  and 
not  a  single  poetical  trope  or  purely  literary  expression.  This 
being  so,  it  is  clear  that  Faust  cannot  be  adequately  repre- 
sented by  the  constant  use  of  Latinized  words  and  literary 
phrases."^^ 

Mr.  Andrews  seems  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  Brooks  and 
Taylor  and  other  translators  might  have  avoided  this  "  Latini- 
zation,"  if  they  but  had  the  wit  to  do  so.  I  do  not  agree 
with  him.  It  belongs,  I  think,  to  the  genius  of  the  language. 
But  I  am  very  willing  to  admit  that  it  is  disastrous  often  to 
the  proper  rendering  of  "Faust.'*  We  can  imagine  Bayard 
Taylor's  Margaret,  with  a  fine  rolling  of  r's  and  all  the  pomp 
of  an  unwonted  three  syllables,  pronounce  the  word  "ab- 
horred."^^  It  is  highly  melodramatic.  But  it  is  not  Goethe. 
It  is  not  Gretchen.  And  nothing  remains  of  Gretchen  in  the 
transition  from: 

Wo  ist  dein  Lieben 

Geblieben?" 
to 

How  changed  in  fashion 

Thy  passion." 
The  passage: 

Ach,  dass  die  Einfalt,  dass  die  Unschuld  nie 
Sich  selbst  und  ihren  heil'gen  Werth  erkennt ! 
Dass  Demuth,  Niedrigkeit,  die  hochsten  Gaben 
Der  liebevoll  austheilenden  Natur — " 

which  Taylor  renders: 

Ah,  that  simplicity  and  innocence  ne'er  know 
Themselves,   their  holy  value,   and  their  spell! 
That  meekness,  lowliness,  the  highest  graces 
Which  Nature  portions  out  so  lovingly —  (I,  139) 

is  ruined  by  that  one  word  "value,"  although  "simplicity," 
"innocence,"  "the  highest  graces,"  "portions,"  and  the  of- 

"  Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  66,  p.  733. 
"Cf.  Faust,  I,  159. 
"  Cf.  11.  4495-4496. 
"Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  211. 
«Cf.  11.  3 1 02-3 1 05. 


40 

fensively  literary  "ne'er"  undoubtedly  contribute  their  share 
to  the  general  unsatisfactory  effect.    Similarly  the  stanza, 

His  lofty  gait, 

His  noble  size. 

The  smile  of  his  mouth, 

The  power  of  his  eyes,  (I,  155) 

is  robbed  of  all  its  charm  by  that  odious  word  "size."  A 
single  verse  of  eight  lines,  otherwise  rather  well  translated, 
which  in  the  original  shows  but  one  word  ("  Bruderspharen  ") 
in  part  of  foreign  derivation,  has  in  Taylor's  rendering 
the  following  words  of  Latin  descent:  "orb,"  "emulation," 
"ancient,"  "predestined,"  "creation,"  "visage,"  "splendid," 
"power,"  " uncomprehended."     (I,  11.) 

And  if  we  turn  at  random  to  the  other  extremity  of  the 
volume  we  find  another  verse  of  eight  lines,  again  containing 
in  the  original  one  non-German  substantive  (Ather).  But  out 
of  that  one,  in  Taylor's  version,  have  grown  twelve.  They 
are  "  insensibly,"  "  pure,"  "  eternal,"  "  orders,"  "  Presence," 
"spirits,"  "  sustentation,"  "ether,"  "eternal,"  "Revelation," 
"Beatitude,"  "ascending."  (II,  308.)  These,  in  the  spirit 
of  Matthew  Arnold,  I  should  call  "bad  words."^®  They  are 
too  sophisticated.  They  detract  from  the  simple  Teutonic  sub- 
limity of  the  original.  But  I  am  not  sure  that  we  could  much 
improve  on  them  and  still  use  the  English  language. 

Out  of  the  second  fact,  that  our  language  is  analytic  and 
uninflected  grows  the  greater  of  the  two  obstacles  to  an  ade- 
quate translation  from  the  German  into  the  English.  The 
English  reviewer,  whom  I  have  already  quoted,  says  well  upon 
this  point :  "  The  converse  process  of  turning  German  verse 
into  English  is  far  more  difficult,  in  consequence  of  the  inevi- 
table deficiency  of  terminal  syllables.  Poetry,  like  prose,  may 
sometimes  be  improved  by  condensation,  and  it  inevitably  loses 
by  artificial  expansion.  While  the  German  translator,  adher- 
ing to  the  metre  of  the  original,  has  always  two  or  three 

^'  Cf.  M.  Arnold,  On  Translating  Homer,  Last  Words,  p.  248 :  "  Again, 
because  I  said  that  eld,  lief,  in  sooth,  and  other  words,  are,  as  Mr.  Newman 
uses  them  in  certain  places,  bad  words,  he  imagines  that  I  must  mean  to 
stamp  these  words  with  an  absolute  reprobation." 


41 

syllables  in  a  line  to  spare,  his  English  competitor  must  con- 
trive to  fill  up  as  many  vacant  spaces.  If  the  language  of 
Chaucer  could  have  been  kept  alive  for  purposes  of  translation, 
many  vowels  which  are  now  mute  would  still  be  sounded,  and 
it  would  often  be  unnecessary  to  alter  or  to  transpose  the 
corresponding  German  word.  The  same  difficulty  which  besets 
a  translator  of  Faust  interferes  with  attempts  to  modernize 
old  English  verse.     Such  a  couplet  as 

Up  sprengen  spares  twenty  foot  on  hight; 
Out  goen  swerdes  as  the  silver  bright; 

might  be  transposed  with  less  change  into  German  than  into 
the  clipped  English  of  the  present  day.  Schwerter  and  Speere 
would  be  far  more  manageable  than  swords  and  spears'''''^  All 
this  is  extremely  well  said.  Two  lines  of  it  will  even  endure 
repeating.  "  Poetry,  like  prose,  may  sometimes  be  improved 
by  condensation,  and  it  inevitably  loses  by  artificial  expansion." 
The  discrepancy  in  the  number  of  syllables  between  inflecting 
German  and  non-inflecting  English  drives  the  translator  from 
German  into  English  to  padding.  It  drove  Bayard  Taylor  to 
padding.  And  as  has  been  cleverly  said :  "  The  indulgence  of 
this  obstetric  art  in  the  case  of  so  finished  a  poet  {i.  e.,  as 
Goethe)  is  hazardous."^®  It  is  Taylor's  solicitude  for  rhythm 
and  rime,  sometimes  for  both,  that  impels  him  to  his  "  fatal 
habit  of  impoverishing  by  seeking  to  enrich."^*  At  times  he 
seeks  relief  in  vacuous  epithets  and  impotent  adverbs : 

"  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  v.  19,  p.  478,  review  of  Sir  Theodore  Martin's 
Faust.  Cf.  Anzeiger  fiir  deutsches  Altertum  und  deutsche  Litteratur, 
1898,  p.  214,  review  of  McLintock's  Faust  by  Albert  Koster:  "  wer 
Shakespeare  oder  Byron  vers  fiir  vers  ins  deutsche  iibertragen  will,  empfindet 
oft  die  schwierigkeit,  den  ganzen  inhalt  und  jede  nuance  eines  englischen 
satzes  mit  einer  ebenso  geringen  anzahl  von  silben  wiederzugeben. 
umgekehrt,  wenn  der  Englander  eine  deutsche  dichtung  versgetreu  iiber- 
setzt.  da  ermoglicht  es  ihra  seine  einsilbige  sprache  sehr  haufig,  einen 
gedanken  auf  der  halfte  des  raumes  zum  ausdruck  zu  bringen,  den  der 
Deutsche  braucht.  und  weil  nun  die  ausdehnung  jedes  verses  vorge- 
schrieben  ist,  so  stellen  sich  flickworter  oder  noch  storendere  zutaten  wie 
von  selbst  ein." 

"  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370. 

"Cf.  ibid. 


42 

How  ill  it  suits  the  Artist,  proud  and  true.  (I>  5) 
And  when  your  hands  unroll  some  parchment  rare  and  old. 

(I.  45) 

This  first  line  let  me  weigh  completely.  (I,  50) 

And  come,  devoted  and  sincere.  (I,  75) 

Like  eating  and  drinking,  free  and  strong.  (I,  yy) 

And,  if  we're  light,  we'll  travel  swift  and  clear.  (I,  83) 

And  fill  thy  goblet  full  and  free.  (I,  109) 

The  tender  bosom  filled  and  fair.  (I,  118) 
How  this  pure  soul,  of  faith  so  lowly. 

So  loving  and  ineffable.  (I,  161) 

Sweet  pain  of  love,  bind  thou  with  fetters  fleet.  (I,  117)" 

His  tones  are  sweet  and  rare  ones.  (I,  196) 

But  tell  me  why,  in  days  so  fair.  (II,  10) 

That  we  win  your  praises  tender.  (II,  22) 

We  are  fair  to  see  and  blooming.  (II,  22) 

Yet  we  hope  to  please  you  purely.  (II,  23) 

Promise  sweet,  and  yielding  tender.  (II,  24) 

Life  we  bless  with  graces  living.  (II,  30) 

And  in  days  serene  and  spacious.  (II,  30) 

Thy  wand  thereto  is  fit  and  free.  (II,  46) 

For,  ever  foremost,  crowd  the  women  greatly.  (II,  47) 
Whate'er  once  was,  there  burns  and  brightens  free.     (II,  y6) 

With  arm  grown  strong  he  lifts  her  high  and  free.  (II,  82) 

I  sought  for  hidden  treasures,  grand  and  golden.  (II,  91) 

This  is  Youth's  noblest  calling  and  most  fit.  (II,  93) 

How  strangely  am  I  moved,  how  nearly.  (II,  115) 

O'er  the  waters,  wild  and  free.  (II,  145) 

Not  distant  are  we  from  his  cavern  cold.  (II,  147) 

At  once  my  wrath  is  kindled,  keen  and  clear.  (II,  147) 

Blent  with  the  element  so  freely,  brightly.  (II,  149) 

In  one's  own  day  to  be  true  man  and  great.  (II,  157) 

I  cannot  grant  the  boon  enraptured.  (II,  160) 
Spell  in  lovers'  primers  sweetly! 

Probe  and  dally,  cosset  featly.  (II,  201) 

Victory — word  divine.  (II,  218) 

Then  for  the  fairest  women,  fresh  and  rosy.  (II,  233) 

"•Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  37o :  "The  introduction, 

too,  of  the  word  '  fleet '  in  this  passage  is  another  instance  of  Mr.  Taylor's 
fatal  habit  of  impoverishing  by  seeking  to  enrich." 


43 

Stormed  through  my  life  at  first  't  was  grand,  completely. 

(II,  289) 
With  star-crown  tender.  (II,  310) 

Again  Taylor  takes  refuge  in  comparatives  which  do  not 
exist  in  the  original,  that  he  may  piece  out  his  line.  Thus 
Goethe  writes: 


Mit  brauner  Fluth  erfullt  er  deine  Hohle. 

(1.  733) 

Taylor  translates: 

It  fills  with  browner  flood  thy  crystal  hollow, 

(I,  30) 

Goethe  writes: 

Er  scheint  ihr  gewogen. 

(1.  3203) 

Taylor  translates: 

He  seems  of  her  still  fonder. 

(I,  145) 

Goethe  writes: 

Denn  von  den  Teufeln  kann  ich  ja 

Auf  gute  Geister  schliessen. 

(11.  4357-4358) 

Taylor  translates: 

Since  from  the  devils  I  also  may 

Infer  the  better  spirits. 

(I,  201) 

Goethe  writes: 

Das  neues  Leben  sich  aus  Leben  schafft. 

(1.  6779) 

Taylor  translates: 

And  newer  life  from  its  own  life  creates. 

(11,  92) 

Goethe  writes: 

Heil!  Heil!  aufs  neue! 

(1.  8432) 

Taylor  translates: 

Hail !  All  hail !  with  newer  voices. 

(II,  161) 

Goethe  writes: 

Ich  fiihle  Kraft  zu  kiihnem  Fleiss. 

(1.  10184) 

Taylor  translates: 

I  feel  new  strength  for  bolder  toil. 

(II,  233) 

44 

Goethe  writes: 

Schones  Gut  im  neuen  Land.  (1.  11136) 

Taylor  translates: 

Fair  estate  of  newer  Land.  (II,  275) 

Goethe  writes: 

Da  seh'  ich  auch  die  neue  Wohnung.  (1.  11346) 

Taylor  translates: 

Thence  shall  I  see  the  newer  dwelling.  (II,  284) 

Of  these  comparatives  which  do  not  exist  in  the  original,  and 
which  lack  all  adequate  reason  for  being,  I  have  found  some 
seventy  in  Taylor's  translation. 

Similarly  superlatives  are  piled  up  for  which  there  is  no 
justification  in  the  original  text.     Goethe  writes: 

Wer  schiittet  alle  schonen  Fruhlingsbluthen.  (1.  152) 

Taylor  translates: 

Who  scatters  every  fairest  April  blossom.  (I»  7) 

Goethe  writes: 

Du  Inbegriff  der  holden  Schlummersafte.  (1.  693) 

Taylor  translates: 

Essence  of  deadly  finest  powers  and  uses.  (I,  29) 

Goethe  writes: 

Wie  sonderbar  muss  diesen  schonen  Hals.  (1.  4203) 

Taylor  translates: 

And,  strange!  around  her  fairest  throat.  (I,  193) 

Goethe  writes: 

Erst  senkt  sein   Haupt  auf  s  kiihle   Polster  nieder. 

(1.  4628) 
Taylor  translates: 

First  on  the  coolest  pillow  let  him  slumber.  (II,  4) 

Goethe  writes: 

Sei  als  eure  Zierde  schon.  (1.  5^3^) 


45 

Taylor  translates: 

Be  your  fairest  ornament.  (II,  23) 

Goethe  writes: 

Gesellt  zu  Starken,  Freien,  Kiihnen.  (1.  9872) 

Taylor  translates: 

And  with  the  Strongest,  Freest,  Boldest.  (II,  219) 

Goethe  writes: 

Langer  Schlaf  verleiht  dem  Greise 

Kurzen  Wachens  rasches  Thun.  (11.  11061-11062) 

Taylor  translates: 

He  but  gains  from  longest  slumber 

Strength  for  briefest  waking  deed.  (II,  271) 

Goethe  writes: 

Den  letzten,  schlechten,  leeren  Augenblick.  (1.  11589) 

Taylor  translates: 

The  latest,  poorest,  emptiest  Moment — this.  (II,  295) 

Of  these  superlatives,  which  have  no  equivalent  in  the  original 
and  seem  to  lack  a  logical  function,  I  have  found  some  eighty 
in  Taylor's  translation. 

Sometimes,  in  order  to  meet  a  deficit  in  his  line,  Taylor 
repeats  the  same  thought  in  slightly  different  form : 

Why  must  the  stream  so  soon  run  dry  and  fail  us.  (I,  50) 

How  shall  we  leave  the  house,  and  start.  (I,  83) 

The  man  who  with  thee  goes,  thy  mate.  (I,  159) 

Thou'lt  hear  a  masterpiece,  no  work  completer.  (I,  170) 

On  my  account  be  kind,  nor  treat  them  rudely.  (I,  186) 

Here !  cast  o'er 

The  knight  your  magic  mantle,  and  infold  him.  (II,  loi) 

Sometimes,  to  eke  out  his  line,  Taylor  adds  a  new  thought, 
in  several  cases  an  infelicitous  new  thought : 

Therein  thou'rt  free,  according  to  thy  merits.         (I,  15)" 
Art  thou,  my  gay  one.  (I,  53) 

"  Cf .    Academy,   December    i,    1871,    p.    529:    "Sometimes   the   concise 
nature  of  the  English  in  comparison  with  the  German  idiom  left  a  surplus 


46 

The  lovely  land  of  wine,  and  song,  and  slumber.  (I,  91) 
Yet — all  that  drove  my  heart  thereto, 

God!  was  so  good,  so  dear,  so  true.  (I,  165) 

And  now  Death  comes,  and  ruin.  (I,  208) 

Henry!  I  shudder  to  think  of  thee.  (I,  216)*^ 

'Tis  he  alone  invents  and  gives.  (II,  87) 

How  Ulysses,  lingering,  learned  us.  (II,  112) 

Shall  I  attain  its  blessing.  (II,  116) 

I  only  praise,  in  loving  duty.  (II,  119) 

In  spite  of  Fate  such  love  to  win  and  wear.  (II,  121) 
And  roots  of  ancient  oaks — the  vilest  rare  ways.  (II,  140) 
The  traces  cannot,  of  mine  earthly  being, 

In  aeons  perish, — they  are  there.  (II,  295) 

Tell  me,  sweet  children,  ere  I  miss  you.  (II,  301) 

Occasionally  Taylor  relieves  the  poverty  of  English  syllables 
by  forming  offensive  plurals.  Such  plurals  are:  blisses  (I, 
153;  II,  159)  ;  remorses  (II,  3)  ;  uglinesses  (II,  no).  Leis- 
ures (I,  65)  is  a  bad  plural,  too,  though  it  occurs  for  rime's, 
not  for  meter's  sake. 

Again  he  pieces  out  his  line  by  making  the  word  real  dis- 
syllabic. This  latter  seems  rather  a  favorite  device.  Instances 
of  it  will  be  found  in  1, 2, 28,  54, 1 13, 188,  and  II,  249.^^     Or  he 

of  metrical  space  to  Mr.  Taylor  in  the  filling  up  of  which  by  additional 
words  of  his  own  he  is  not  always  very  successful.  In  the  Prologue  in 
Heaven  .  .  .  '  Du  darfst  auch  hier  nur  frei  erscheinen.'  This  Mr.  Taylor 
translates  by  '  Therein  thou'rt  free,  according  to  thy  merits/  which  addi- 
tion is,  to  use  the  very  mildest  term,  absolutely  meaningless." 

^  Cf.  ibid. :  "  Goethe  also  would  never  have  thought  of  calling  Spain  the 
lovely  land  of  wine,  song,  and  slumber!  or  letting  Margaret  exclaim,  as  a 
climax  of  despairing  love  and  agony, — 'Henry!  I  shudder  to  think  (!)  of 
thee ' ;  which  under  the  circumstances,  and  as  an  equivalent  of  the  heart 
rending  '  Heinrich,  mir  graut  vor  dir !  '  appears  inconceivably  flat  and 
silly." 

*^  This  must  be  somewhat  annoying  to  Mr.  Howells,  who  once  upon  a 
time  praised  Taylor  for  not  doing  this  very  thing.  Cf.  Atlantic,  v.  37, 
p.  108:  "In  Mr.  Taylor's  work  there  is  a  technical  perfection  which 
...  is  wanting  in  nearly  all  our  younger  poets.  ...  It  is  not  enough 
to  make  musical  verses ;  that  alone  is  like  playing  by  ear ;  the  verses  must 
be  correct :  correctness  may  be  stiff,  but  there  is  no  true  elegance  without 
it;  and  the  poet  who  ekes  out  the  measure  of  his  line  by  making  two 
syllables  of  such  words  as  heaven,  even,  given,  and  the  like,  and  three 
of  such  as  difference,  mystery  (except  at  the  end  of  a  verse),  may  find 
precedents  enough,  but  not  excuse  amongst  the  masters  of  his  art  in  times 
since  the  best  usage  became  law." 


47 

throws  in  a  gratuitous  phrase,  which  is  usually  not  notably 
illuminating  and  therefore  to  be  wished  away.  Examples  are : 
/  fear  w^  (I,  51)  ;  /  fear  (I,  67)  ;  /  promise  (I,  76)  ;  so  please 
ye  (I,  80)  ;  'tis  not  to  he  denied  (I,  80)  ;  I'm  thinking  (I,  84, 
89)  ;  in  truth  (I,  107)  ;  the  fact  is  (II,  11)  ;  /  insist  (II,  39)  ; 
/  find  (II,  42)  ;  in  short  (II,  132,  297)  ;  /  trow  (II,  50)  ;  /  vow 

(11, 259). 

On  the  whole  Gretchen's  song  "  Meine  Ruh'  ist  hin "  has 
suffered  more  seriously  than  any  other  single  passage  from  the 
necessary  evil  of  padding.  An  English  reviewer,  who  does 
not  think  the  song  could  "  be  precisely  reproduced  by  any  com- 
bination of  English  syllables,"  has  put  his  finger  accurately 
upon  its  weaknesses.  He  says :  "  Goethe  would  scarcely  have 
made  Gretchen  tell  us  that  the  world  is  bitterness  as  well  as  gall, 
or  that  her  thought  was  lost  just  after  she  had  informed  us 
that  her  head  was  '  racked  and  crazed '  ...  we  may  point  to 
the  subjective  allusion  contained  in  the  words  '  the  bliss  in  the 
clasp  of  his  hand,'  which  is  out  of  character  with  the  wholly 
objective  attitude  of  Gretchen's  mind  when  calling  up  in  imagi- 
nation the  charms  of  her  lover."®* 

Taylor's  departures  from  the  original  meters  are  few  in 
number.  They  occur  for  the  most  part  in  vers  irreguliers, 
where  an  occasional  hypermetrical  line  is  no  very  grave  offense. 
I  have  found  but  one  line  where  it  seems  to  me  that  much  has 
been  lost  in  deviating  from  the  original  number  of  feet. 
Taylor's  hypermetrical  line : 

In  yonder  world,  returns  to  me  in  this  (II,  313) 

forfeits,  in  my  opinion,  every  atom  of  exultant  charm  residing 
in  the  original: 

Er  kommt  zuriick.  (1.  12075) 

Sometimes,  for  the  rime's  sake  usually,  Taylor  adopts  a 
word  which  is  at  best  a  very  insipid  rendering  of  his  original : 

Death  is  desired,  and  Life  a  thing  unblest.  (I,  63) 

His  noble  size.  (I,  155) 

A  little  thievish  and  a  little  frolicsome.  (I,  169) 

I  hope  to  see  you  moulder.  (I,  198) 

"*  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  i6,  1871,  p.  370. 


48 

...  he  who  changes 

Shall  be  missed  among  the  living.  (II,  33) 

I  will  not  be,  Hke  others,  meanly  flighty.  (II,  122) 

Sometimes,  or  more  accurately  once,  he  leaves  for  the  sake 
of  the  rime  the  German  untranslated : 

To  leave  the  kettle,  and  singe  the  Frau.  (I,  106) 

Once  he  transfers  the  sound,  again  for  rime's  sake,  but  does 
not  translate  the  sense : 

As  time,  foul  ass.  (I,  107) 

In  this  chapter  may  be  properly  discussed  those  lines  in 
Taylor's  "  Faust "  which  incorrectly  or  obscurely  render  the 
original.  Several  such  lines  are  obviously  concessions  made 
to  the  exigencies  of  rime  and  rhythm.     Others  may  be  so. 

A  fine  young  fellow's  presence,  to  my  thinking        (I,  4) 
should  read: 

A  fine  young  fellow's  present,  to  my  thinking." 

"By  sheer  diffuseness "  (I,  5)  is  a  misapprehension  of  the 
phrase  "  in  der  Breite,"  which  should  be  rendered :  "  in  the 
world  at  large."^®  "And  never  cared  to  have  them  in  my 
keeping"  (I,  14)  is  loose  for  "Hab'  ich  mich  niemals  gem 
befangen"  (I,  319).  It  might  almost  appear  that  Taylor 
regarded  sick  befangen  as  synonymous  with  fangen. 

Mr.  J.  Henry  Senger  objects  to  Taylor's  rendering  of  the 
lines : 

Ja,  cure  Reden,  die  so  blinkend  sind. 

In  denen  ihr  der  Menschheit  Schnitzel  krauselt.  (11.  554-555) 

Mr.  Senger  says :  "  Bayard  Taylor,  in  a  note,  justly  objects  to 
taking  der  Menschheit  as  a  genitive ;  yet  his  '  shredded  thought 
like  paper '  (I,  24)  is,  I  think,  far  from  representing  the  exact 
idea.  Schnitzel  krduseln  means  '  cut  up  and  curl  paper '  (espe- 
cially scraps  of  paper)  for  ornaments,  like  for  instance,  those 
put  round  candles  to  receive  their  drippings  (French  bob^ches 
de  papier),  the  meaning,  then,  would  be:  Your  glittering 
speeches  which  are  humanity's  flimsy  ornaments."®^ 

"  Cf.  note  to  1.  79. 
«•  Cf.  note  to  1.  93. 
"  Cf.  Modern  Language  Notes,  v.  XV,  no.  3,  col.  164,  III, 


49 

Objection  has  been  made  to  Taylor's  translation  of  the  lines : 

Und  doch,  an  diesen  Klang  von  Jugend  auf  gewohnt, 
Ruft  er  auch  jetzt  zuriick  mich  in  das  Leben.     (11.  769-770) 
And  yet,  from  childhood  up  familiar  with  the  note, 
To  life  it  now  renews  the  old  allegiance.  (I,  32) 

The  critic  says:  "Here  the  omission  of  a  substitute  for  the 
pronoun  'mich/  which  is  grammatically  questionable,  and  the 
loss  of  the  self-explanatory  gender  in  the  '  er,'  render  the  pas- 
sage sadly  unintelligible  to  mortals  endowed  with  only  the  ordi- 
nary powers  of  vision."^^  "A  slave  am  I,  whate'er  I  do" 
(I,  69)  quite  misses  the  force  of  "  wie  ich  beharre,"  which  is 
equivalent  to  "  as  soon  as  I  stagnate."^®  "  Fort !  Fort !  Ich 
kehre  nimmermehr"  (1.  2730)  is  incorrectly  rendered:  "Go! 
go!  I  never  will  retreat"  (I,  119)  ;  and,  as  has  been  indicated 
elsewhere,  an  important  point  has  thus  been  lost.  "Faust, 
after  a  long  discussion  with  his  companion,  winds  up  with  this 
argumentum  ad  hominem: 

'  Wer  Recht  behalten  will  und  hat  nur  eine  Zunge, 
Behalt's  gewiss  ' —  (II.  3069-3070) 

the  meaning  of  which  is,  *  Who  wants  to  have  the  better  of  his 
adversary  in  argument  is  sure  to  have  it  if  he  only  possess  a 
tongue.'     Mr.  Taylor  says: 

whoever 
Intends  to  have  the  right,  if  but  his  tongue  be  clever,  (  I) 
Will  have  it,  certainly  (I,  137) 

which  is  exactly  the  reverse  of  what  Goethe  wishes  to  imply. 
Faust  means  to  say  that  he  himself  is  by  far  the  more  clever  of 
the  two,  but  that  the  Devil  has  the  louder  voice  and  longer 
breath."»« 

In  the  line  "  Denkt  ihr  an  mich"  (1.  3106),  "Mr.  Taylor 
incorrectly  makes  '  Denkt '  an  imperative,  and  by  so  doing  robs 
the  exclamation,  to  our  mind,  of  all  significance."^^  Perhaps 
in  response  to  the  foregoing  complaint  Taylor  altered  (in  the 

**  Cf .  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370. 

"  Cf.  note  to  1.  1 710. 

•"  Cf .  Academy,  December  i,  1871,  p.  529. 

"  Cf .  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370. 

6 


60 

Kennett  edition  and  in  all  the  one- volume  editions  from  1875 
on)  the  line  to:  "  So  you  but  think  a  moment's  space  on  me" 
(I,  140).  From  his  notes,®^  however,  it  appears  that  he  still 
believed  denkt  to  be  an  imperative.  A  somewhat  similar  in- 
stance is  to  be  found  in  the  lines : 

Dost  thou  thy  father  honor,  as  a  youth?  .  .  . 

Dost  thou,  as  man,  increase  the  stores  of  truth  (I,  43) 

where  "a  conditional  sentence  is  mistaken  for  an  interroga- 
tive."^^ "By  a  curious  blunder  ...  he  {i.  e.,  Taylor)  over- 
looks the  gender,  and  consequently  mistakes  the  antecedent  of 
the  relative  in  the  following  passage : 

Ergreif  mein  Herz,  du  siisse  Liebespein ! 

Die  du  vom  Thau  der  Hoffnung  schmachtend  lebst.   (11.  2689-2690) 

The  idea  of  pain  living  piningly  on  the  dew  of  hope  is  undoubt- 
edly a  far  more  subtle  one  than  that  conveyed  in  the  transla- 
tion ;  but  it  is  unmistakably  the  one  intended  by  Goethe."^* 

An  English  critic  objects  to  Taylor's  substitution  of  my  for 
thy  in  a  certain  case.  He  says :  "  Gretchen  is  naively  telling 
Faust  how  his  rude  salutation  affected  her.  The  German  runs 
thus : 

*  Ach,  dacht  ich,  hat  er  in  deinem  Betragen 

Was  Freches,  Unanstandiges  gesehen.'     (11.  3171-3172) 

Mr.  Taylor  substitutes  'my'  for  the  German  'thy'  (I,  143). 
We  are  quite  aware  that  this  quaint  style  of  addressing  oneself 
is  much  indulged  in  by  Germans,  even  of  the  more  educated 
classes ;  but  we  think  it  a  striking  characteristic  of  simple  and 
unsophisticated  people  generally,  and  as  such  it  is  an  integral 
touch  in  Margaret's  portrait.  "^^  Taylor  is  at  least  consistent 
in  altering  this  thy  of  self -address  to  my,  as  will  be  seen  by 
consulting  Faust  I,  pp.  118,  207,  and  Faust  II,  p.  115.  Taylor 
changes  likewise  an  ich  of  the  original  to  we  (II,  309). 

Objection  has  also  been  made  to  Taylor's  rendering  of  the 
Hues : 

Einmal  recht  ausgeweint  (1.  3321) 

•^Cf.  Faust,  I,  note  105. 

•*  Cf.  Academy,  December  i,  1871,  p.  529. 

"*  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  i6,  1871,  p.  370. 

""  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  187 1,  p.  370. 


51 

which  he  translates: 

Now,  wept  beyond  her  tears.  (I,  151) 

The  critic  says :  "  We  find  once  or  twice  a  violent  effort  to 
retain  even  the  verbal  form.  For  instance,  German  'ausge- 
weint,'  which  cannot,  we  think,  be  rendered  except  by  a  cir- 
cumlocution, is  supposed  to  be  translated  by  making  an  adjec- 
tive of  the  active  participle  '  wept.' "®®  There  is  no  motion  in 
the  preposition  "  an  "  in  the  line : 

Und  Hiift'  an  Ellenbogen  (1.  972) 

as  is  plainly  shown  by  the  verb  "  ruhten  "  three  lines  back,  but 
Taylor  translates  it : 

And  hips  and  elbows  straying.  (I,  40)" 

"  In's  Freie  "  (1.  4538)  does  not  mean  "  To  freedom  "  (I,  213) 
but  "  out  of  doors."»8 

Mr.  R.  McLintock  objects  to  Taylor's  rendering  of  the 
"  Chor  der  Engel  "  (11.  757-761).  Mr.  McLintock  says  :  "  Ex- 
cept for  the  rhyming,  one  would  be  inclined  to  opine  them 
(i.  e.,  the  lines  of  the  "  Chor  der  Engel ")  not  extra-difficult  to 
render  in  English.  Yet,  if  my  reading  of  them  is  correct,  the 
five  best  known  of  our  translators — Anster,  Blackie,  Swanwick, 
Taylor,  Martin,  and  to  these  I  will  add  Mr.  Coupland  and  the 
new  anonymous  *  Beta ' — have  all  of  them  failed  to  give  their 
true  sense.  .  .  .  Mr.  Coupland  (The Spirit  of  Goethe^s  'Faust') 
with  the  world  before  him,  quotes  Bayard  Taylor's  version, 
and  so  appears  to  stamp  it  with  his  approval.  .  .  .  What  a 
consensus !  And  I  am  going  to  declare  with  Tennyson's 
'  Sailor  Boy,'  that — '  They  are  all  to  blame ;  t!hey  are  all  to 

'^  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370. 

"  Cf.  ibid. :  "  Yet  though  he  himself  (i,  e.,  Taylor)  undoubtedly  shows  a 
knowledge  both  of  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  original  to  which  but 
few  foreigners  could  pretend,  he  forms  no  exception  to  the  common  human 
liability  to  err.  Thus,  for  instance,  it  is  necessary  to  remind  him  that 
there  is  no  motion  implied  in  the  preposition  an  in  the  expression  '  Hiifte 
isic)  an  Ellenbogen,'  and  we  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  how  he  managed 
to  get  the  notion  of  straying  out  of  it." 

'*  Cf.  ibid. :  "  One  more  inaccuracy  must  not  go  unnoticed.  *  In's  Freie  * 
does  not  mean  '  to  Freedom,'  as  Mr.  Taylor  imagines,  but  simply  into  the 
open  air." 


62 

blame ! '  In  the  German,  Christ  is  the  subject  of  the  first  line 
only.  Der  Liebende  is  the  friend,  disciple,  adherent,  lover 
(*  Romans,  countrymen,  and  lovers ! '),  who  had  been  subjected 
to  the  grievous,  but  wholesome,  discipline  of  seeing  his  Friend 
and  Master  vanish  and  the  promise  seem  to  fail.  The  words 
heilsam  und  iibende — so  right  and  suitable  when  applied  to  the 
possibly  weak-kneed  believer,  so  utterly  inapplicable  to  Christ 
— should  have  suggested  to  the  translators  that  the  latter  could 
not  be  the  subject  of  the  last  four  lines.  And  then  the  exact 
parallelism  of  the  First  Angel  Chorus.  .  .  .  The  adjective  used 
substantively  and  followed  by  three  qualifying  words,  with  the 
sense  completed  only  in  the  last  line — these  things  should  have 
drawn  attention  to  the  content,  even  though  the  form  might 
have  to  be  altered  in  the  passage  into  another  language.  Had 
the  original  tongue  been  Greek  instead  of  German,  half  a  cen- 
tury of  translators  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  follow  each 
other  like  a  flock  of  sheep,  each  jumping  from  the  ground  as 
he  passes  a  given  spot."®® 

G.  von  Loper  objects  to  Taylor's  rendQring Fideler  (Goethe's 
"Faust"  I,  p.  212)  by  Good  Fellow  (I,  200).  With  other 
good  authorities  he  would  prefer  to  render  it  Fiddler. ^^^  G. 
von  Loper  adds:  "Nicht  Goethe's  feinem  Sprachsinn  ist  ein 
Missbrauch  des  Wortes  in  seiner  Blocksbergdichtung,  viel  eher 
Taylor's  Sprachgefiihl  im  Deutschen  ein  Irrtum  zuzutrauen. 
Auf  Taylor  kann  ein  Deutscher  sich  nicht  verweisen  lassen."^^^ 

"Beards  of  beauty"  (II,  10)  is  an  inaccurate  translation  of 
"Schonbarte"  (1.  4767).  Appearances  to  the  contrary,  the 
schon  of  this  word  has  nothing  to  do  with  beauty  but  means : 
''larve,  nuiske,  verderbt  aus  schemebart,  schembart,  eigentlich 
'  bdrtige  maske'  .  .  .  {der  bart  war  in  alter  zeit  das  wesent- 
liche  bei  der  maske)."^^^ 

One  dreams  of  mandrake,  nightly  growing, 
The  other  of  the  dog  of  Hell,  (H,  17) 

is  not  a  particularly  intelligent  rendering  of, 

»•  Cf*  Academy,  v.  XLVIII,  no.  1234,  p.  568. 

*°"Cf.  Calvin  Thomas's  edition  of  Faust,  v.  I,  p.  332. 

"^Cf.  Goethe-Jahrbuch,  Band  II,  S.  439- 

"^  Cf.  Grimm,  Deutsches  Worterbuch,  sub  voce  Schonbart. 


53 

Der  eine  faselt  von  Alraunen 

Der  andre  von  dem  schwarzen  Hund.      (11.  4979-4980) 

Dem  schwarzen  Hund  has  nothing  to  do  with  Cerberus  or  any 
other  "  dog  of  Hell,"  as  v^ill  be  seen  by  consulting  the  note  to 
11.  4979-4980,  in  Professor  Thomas's  edition  of  "  Faust." 

I  straightway  put  my  harness  on  (II,  36) 

is  a  more  or  less  literal  but  not  an  idiomatic  translation  of : 

Es  mich  sogleich  in  Harnisch  bringt  (1.  5466) 

for  Grimm  expressly  quotes  this  passage  as  an  instance  of  the 
"  freer  "  or  derived  use  of  the  phrase  "  in  Harnisch  bringen."^**' 

Yet  the  crowd  seems  not  to  share  in't  (II,  37) 

is  a  strange  distortion  of  the  actual  grammatical  conditions 
and  of  the  sense  of  the  passage: — Doch  er  theilet  nicht  die 
Menge  (1.  5514).  "  Menge  "  is  accusative  not  nominative,  and 
"theilet"  means  "divide"  in  the  sense  of  "thrust  asunder," 
not  "  divide  "  in  the  sense  "  share." 

Arrears  of  pay  are  settled  duly  (II,  57) 

does  not  correctly  render : 

Abschlaglich  ist  der  Sold  entrichtet  (1.  6045) 

which  means  that  payment  "on  account"  has  been  made  the 
soldiers : 

And  yet,  why  need  you  stiffen?  (II,  107) 

does  not  translate : 

Und  doch,  nicht  abzuschweifen.  (1.  7098) 

That  little  one,  she  warms  my  gizzard  (II,  134) 

is  free  and  not  singularly  felicitous  for: 

Die  Kleine  mocht'  ich  mir  verpfanden.  (1.  7773) 

We  have  asked  for  eternal  truth  (II,  160) 

"*  Cf.  Grimm,  Deutsches  Worterhuch,  sub  voce  Harnisch ;  "  die  formeln 
im  harnisch  sein,  in  den  harnisch  bringen  haben  zundchst  nur  den  sinn 
gerustet,  kriegsbereit  sein,  kampfgeriistet  machen  ,  ,  ,  sie  werden  aber 
schon  frilher  als  bilder  fiir  einen  kampfbereiten,  kampfgrimmen,  zornigen 
menschen  gebraucht,  z.  b.  bereits  in  den  fastnachtsspielen  ,  .  ,  diese  bilder 
bewahren  noch  lange  sp'dter  ihre  ganze  sinnliche  schdrfe  ,  .  .  wenn  sie 
auch  vielfach  abgeblaszt  verwendet  werden  .  .  ,  mit  freierem  ausdrucke 
•  .  ,  doch  wo  was  riihmliches  gelingt,  es  mich  sogleich  in  harnisch  bringt." 


54 

is  a  misleading  translation  of  the  line : 

Wir  haben  ewige  Treue  begehrt.  (1.  8418) 

Taylor  rendered  incorrectly  the  line : 

Des  Herren  Wort  es  gibt  allein  Gewicht        (1.  11 502) 

translating  it : 

God's  Word  alone  confers  on  me  the  might. 

(royal  octavo  edition,  1871,  p.  400) 

Mr.  W.  S.  Rayner  of  Baltimore  called  Taylor's  attention  to 
the  error,  but  not  until  after  Taylor's  death  was  the  line 
changed  to: 

The  master's  Word  alone  bestows  the  might     (II,  291) 

for  the  uncorrected  line  stands  in  the  Kennett  edition  and  in 
the  royal  octavo  reprints  of  the  first  edition  as  late  at  least  as 
i879.^«* 

The  criticisms  passed  by  Professor  J.  M.  Hart  upon  Taylor's 
translation  are  somewhat  more  subtle.  They  are  specific  but 
might  readily  be  made  to  apply  to  the  entire  translation.  Pro- 
fessor Hart  writes :  "  Mr.  Taylor  says,  on  page  12  of  his 
preface,  '  There  are  words,  it  is  true,  with  so  delicate  a  bloom 
upon  them  that  it  can  in  no  wise  be  preserved.'  We  suspect 
that '  Faust '  contains  more  such  words  than  Mr.  Taylor  would 
be  willing  to  admit ;  and  not  single  words  merely,  but  colloca- 
tions of  words,  engendering  a  grace  or  a  force  that  no  second 
arrangement  can  hope  to  preserve.  .  .  .  Our  theory  is  simply 
this :  Does  any  given  translation  produce,  in  its  parts  and  as  an 
entirety,  the  same  impression  that  the  original  would  give,  if 
read  with  a  good  understanding  of  the  language  and  the  acces- 
sories of  time  and  place?  Does  the  translation  call  forth  ex- 
actly the  same  emotions  and  shades  of  emotion  ?  Does  it  make 
precisely  the  same  appeals  to  our  sensuous,  our  imaginative, 

"*  Taylor's  unpublished  reply  to  Mr.  Rayner  reads  in  part :  "  I  thank 
you  for  calling  my  attention  to  the  line  you  quote.  My  translation  is  un- 
doubtedly incorrect.  As  it  was  written  nearly  six  years  ago,  I  cannot 
recall  what  cause  led  me  to  translate  Herr  as  '  God '  instead  of  '  lord ' 
or  *  master,' — but  I  was  probably  misled  by  one  of  the  many  commentaries 
which  I  then  studied,  in  order  to  acquaint  myself  with  all  varieties  of 
interpretation." 


55 

our  reflective  nature?  Does  it  take  the  same  hold  on  our  ear 
and  heart?  If  this  theory  is  reasonable,  we  feel  constrained  to 
yield  to  Lewes'  dictum,  that  no  translation  can  be  to  us  what 
the  original  is.  At  best  it  is  merely  an  approximation,  and  the 
further  question  becomes  one  of  degree  rather  than  of  quality. 
.  .  .  The  reader  of  '  Faust '  will  remember  the  magnificent 
description  of  the  tempest  on  the  Brocken.  .  .  .  Mr.  Taylor's 
translation  of  it  is  an  admirable  rendering,  we  will  not  deny, 
but  below  the  original  in  several  particulars.  Girren  and 
Brechen  are  applied  to  the  branches,  and  have  the  force  of  our 
'  moaning '  and  '  snapping ' ;  whereas  the  '  Drohnen '  of  the 
heavier  trunks  is  to  be  rendered  by  the  more  forcible  '  quaking ' 
or  'groaning.'  They  cannot  be  said  to  *  thunder'  until  they 
fall,  which  comes  afterwards.  The '  Knarren '  and  the '  Gahnen  * 
of  the  roots  are  not  fully  represented  by  *  twisting  asunder,' 
but  rather  by  '  screaking '  and  *  wrenching.'  The  original 
'  iibertriimmerten  Kliifte '  is  much  more  expressive  than 
'wreck-strewn  gorges.'  It  means  'gorges  heaped  up  to  the 
top  and  over  with  wreck.'  Finally  '  surges '  is  a  word  prop- 
erly applied  to  the  commotion  of  water,  not  of  air.  The  force 
of  the  original  is  best  given  by  'the  winds  are  hissing  and 
howling.'  .  .  . 

"Again,  Faust's  rhapsody,  on  seeing  the  archetype  of  wo- 
manly beauty  in  the  witches'  mirror.  .  .  .  Can  we  truthfully 
admit  that  the  one  has  the  direct,  burning  eloquence  of  the 
other?  Does  the  translation  bring  out,  so  far  as  half  way,  the 
despairing  contrast  between  heaven  and  earth  in  the  original? 
.  .  .  Then  the  word  'mated'  destroys  the  climax  by  redun- 
dancy. We  pass  to  another  instance,  where  the  discrepancy 
is  more  palpable — the  fearful  sarcasm  with  which  Mephistoph- 
eles  (as  Faust)  lashes  the  law,  to  the  utter  confusion  of  the 
poor  student  who  has  come  to  the  Doctor  for  advice.  .  .  ." 
Taylor's  translation  "sounds  like  Mephistopheles  with  the 
venom  extracted.  Laws  are  emphatically  not  '  fitted '  from 
generation  to  generation,  according  to  Mephistopheles.  They 
are  not  changed,  but  merely  '  drag  themselves '  from  age  to 
age,  '  crawling  softly '  from  place  to  place.  '  Plage  *  is  here  at 
least  to  be  rendered  by  '  curse,'  '  torment ' ;  '  worry '  being  far 


56 

too  feeble.  The  concluding  line,  'This  to  consider,  there's, 
alas !  no  hurry,'  utterly  fails  to  reproduce  the  exquisite  Mephis- 
tophelian  sneer:  Of  that  (our  natural  right  as  man),  good 
lack!  we  never  hear  the  mention!  Let  us  content  ourselves 
with  examining  the  naively  brutal  couplet  of  the  Theatre  Di- 
rector :  .  .  ."  Taylor's  "  version  certainly  has  no  taint  of  bru- 
tality about  it,  whereas  the  original  means,  in  so  many  words : 
If  you  give  yourself  out  for  a  poet,  why  trot  out  your  poetry, 
as  a  drill-sergeant  would  his  squad."^^^ 

Professor  Hart  evidently  felt,  as  did  a  reviewer  in  the 
Aldine,  that,  "  There  is,  running  through  the  whole  and  con- 
tinually cropping  out  in  marked  relief,  that  subtle  dissonance 
of  a  half  note  or  so  which  makes  all  the  difference  between 
harmony  and  its  opposite.  .  .  .  The  original  ...  is  in  much 
the  same  relation  to  the  translation  that  an  air  perfectly  played 
or  sung  would  bear  to  the  same  music  persistently  executed — in 
technical  parlance — '  half  a  note  off.'  "^®® 

"»  Cf.  Galaxy,  March,  1871,  p.  464- 

"•Cf.  Aldine,  review  of  Taylor's  Faust,  March,  1871,  p.  4i« 


CHAPTER  III 
The  English  of  Taylor's  Translation 

Professor  Barrett  Wendell,  speaking  of  "  Faust "  as  Taylor's 
"  most  meritorious  work,"  says :  "  The  result  in  no  wise  re- 
sembles normal  English."^  Professor  Barrett  Wendell  does 
not  attempt  to  establish  his  assertion.  The  scope  of  his  book 
did  not  permit  that.  It  can  be  shown,  however,  that  he  is 
in  some  degree  correct.  It  can  be  shown  furthermore  that 
much  in  Taylor's  translation,  which  "in  no  wise  resembles 
normal  English,"  can  be  traced  in  source  to  a  recognized  ex- 
cellence of  the  translation — its  formal  fidelity.^ 

Taylor  says :  "  My  own  task  has  been  cheered  by  the  dis- 
covery that  the  more  closely  I  reproduced  the  language  of  the 
original,  the  more  of  its  rhythmical  character  was  transferred 
at  the  same  time."^  It  was  this  meticulous  fidelity  to  the  text 
of  the  original,  which  frequently  induced  Taylor  to  stretch  the 
English  idiom  until  it  snapped.  Where  Taylor  is  un-English 
he  is  usually  German. 

Un-English  are  the  nominalized  adjectives,  which  Taylor 
persists  in  using.  But  they  are  excellent  German.  Dr.  Kruger 
justly  says:  "Die  Kraft  des  Englischen,  Eigenschaftsworter 
zu  Hauptwortern  zu  erheben,  ist  gering."*  Bayard  Taylor 
constantly  oversteps  that  which  is  permitted  in  this  regard. 
Nor  does  it,  to  my  mind,  help  the  matter  any  that  he  for  the 
most  part  writes  these  nominalized  adjectives  with  large  initials. 

Thus  Goethe  writes,  "Und  nennt  die  Guten"  (1.  15),  and 
Taylor  translates  all  too  faithfully,  "And  names  the  Good" 

*  Cf.  Barrett  Wendell,  A  Literary  History  of  America,  pp.  455-458. 

'  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  266 :  "  The  characteristics  of  Taylor*s 
'  Faust '  are  sympathetic  quality,  rapid  poetic  handling,  absolute  fidelity 
to  the  text." 

'  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 

*  Cf.  Dr.  Gustav  Kriiger,  Englische  Ergdnzungsgrammatik  und  Stilisti- 
sches,  Dresden  und  Leipzig,  1898,  p.  41. 

57 


58 

(I,  i).  "The  Good"  may  mean  one  of  two  things  in  Eng- 
lish. It  may  indicate  either  the  abstract  quality  of  goodness 
as  in  the  phrase,  "the  good,  the  beautiful,  the  true,"  or  it 
may  be  an  universal  term,  equivalent  to  "all  those  persons 
characterized  by  the  quality  of  goodness."  But  it  cannot,  by 
any  stretch  of  English  idiom,  refer,  as  in  Goethe  it  does  refer, 
to  some  few  good  persons  previously  specified  by  the  poet. 

When  Taylor  offers  us,  "Escape  from  the  Created"  (II, 
68)  for  "Entfliehe  dem.  Entstandenen "  (1.  6276);  "And 
find,  alas!  my  near-related"  (II,  132)  for  "Und  finde  leider 
Nahverwandte  "  (1.  7741)  ;  "Leave  her,  the  Ugly"  (II,  133) 
for  "Lass  diese  Garstige"  (1.  7752);  "Certainly,  ye  Inex- 
perienced!" (II,  208)  for  "Allerdings,  ihr  Unerf ahrnen ! " 
(1.  9595)  ;  "Save  Coarse  were  drudging  .  .  .  Would  Fine  be 
able"  (II,  26)  for  "  Denn  wirkten  Grobe  .  .  .  Wie  kamen 
Feine  "  (11.  5207-5209)  ;  "  Displays  the  Marvellous,  that  each 
desires"  (II,  76)  for  "Was  jeder  wiinscht,  das  Wunder- 
wiirdige  schauen  "  (1.  6438),  we  are  struck,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, by  the  literalness  of  the  rendering;  but  literalness 
ceases  to  be  a  virtue,  if  it  leaves  us  mentally  groping  for  the 
noun,  which,  according  to  English  idiom,  ought  to  follow,  but 
does  not. 

Goethe's  lines,  "  Ihm  fehlt  es  nicht  an  geistigen  Eigen- 
schaften,  Doch  gar  zu  sehr  am  greiflich  Tiichtighaften  "  (11. 
8249-8250),  are  translated  by  Taylor,  "He  has  no  lack  of 
qualities  ideal.  But  far  too  much  of  palpable  and  real"  (II, 
153).  Here  the  lesser  fault  is  the  unfinished  air  which  the 
unsupported  adjectives  create.  The  sense  is  ambiguous,  and 
the  impression  given  the  reader  of  Homunculus  becomes  in- 
evitably erroneous.  Only  one  acquainted  with  the  original  text, 
I  fancy,  will  know  that  he  is  to  understand  the  noun  "  lack  " 
after  the  word  "much." 

Taylor  offends  against  normal  English  by  an  ill-advised 
affectation  of  inversion.  He  believed  that  "  English  metre  com- 
pels the  use  of  inversions."''  And  this  perverse  belief  led 
him  to  construct  sentences,  many  of  them,  which  approxi- 
mate more  closely  the  German  ideal  than  the  English  standard 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 


59 

of  sentence  structure.  It  may  be  conceded  that  English  syntax 
exhibits  no  adamantine  rules  concerning  word-order;  but  there 
are  certain  broad  principles,  which  good  usage  approves  and 
affects. 

In  the  first  place  word-order  plays  its  part  in  poetry  as  in 
prose.^  It  is  only  an  inferior  or  a  lazy  poet  who  is  satisfied 
to  let  the  logical  and  the  metrical  stress  fall  asunder.  Secondly 
the  approved  word-order  in  English  is,  generally  speaking, 
subject,  verb,  object.  And  that  man  only,  who  by  departing 
from  this  word-order,  achieves  the  most  delightful  or  the 
most  powerful  of  poetic  effects,  is  pardoned  for  the  departure. 
"  The  English  language,"  says  Professor  Barrett  Wendell 
"  has  fewer  inflections  than  almost  any  other  known  to  the 
civilized  world;  that  is,  each  word  has  fewer  distinct  forms 
to  indicate  its  relations  to  the  words  about  it.  All  nouns 
have  possessives  and  plurals;  all  verbs  have  slightly  different 
forms  for  the  present  and  the  past  tense ;  but  this  is  about  all. 
In  English,  then,  the  relation  of  word  to  word  is  expressed 
not  by  the  forms  of  the  words,  but  generally  by  their  order; 
and  any  wide  departure  from  the  normal  order  of  a  sentence 
— in  brief,  subject,  verb,  object — is  apt  to  alter  or  to  destroy 
the  meaning  .  .  .  what  '  Nero  Agrippina  killed '  may  mean, 
nobody  without  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  can  possibly  decide. 
What  is  true  of  this  simplest  of  sentences  is  true  in  a  general 
way  of  any  sentence  in  the  English  language.  Good  use  has 
settled  that  the  meaning  of  one  great  class  of  compositions  in 
English — namely,  of  sentences — shall  be  indicated  in  general, 
not  by  the  forms  of  the  words  which  compose  them,  but  by 
the  order.  Except  within  firmly  defined  limits,  we  cannot  alter 
the  order  of  words  in  English  without  violating  good  use ;  and 
in  no  language  can  we  violate  good  use  without  grave  and 
often  fatal  injury  to  our  meaning.  .  .  .  While,  on  the  one 
hand,  then,  we  who  use  uninflected  English  are  free  from  the 
disturbing  array  of  grammatical  rules  and  exceptions  which 

'  Cf.  Specimens  of  the  Table  Talk  of  the  late  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge, 
Harper  and  Brothers,  New  York,  1835,  p.  no:  "The  definition  of  good 
Prose  is — proper  words  in  their  proper  places — of  good  Verse — the  most 
proper  words  in  their  proper  places." 


60 

so  bothers  us  in  Latin  or  in  German,  we  are  far  less  free 
than  Romans  or  Germans  to  apply  the  principles  of  composi- 
tion to  the  composing  of  sentences."^ 

Thirdly,  it  is  recognized  that  by  removing  a  word  from 
its  natural  order  we  draw  attention  to  that  word.®  It  is 
agreed  that  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  a  sentence  (es- 
pecially the  end  of  a  sentence)  are  points  of  peculiar  emphasis.® 
If  we  distort  words  of  slight  importance  from  their  natural 
position  or  thrust  them  to  the  beginning  or  to  the  end  of  the 
sentence,  we  are  offending  against  "ease,"  and  consequently 
against  the  normal  English  approved  by  good  use.  "  Ease," 
says  Professor  Hill,  "prohibits  an  arrangement  that  throws 
the  emphasis  <?n,  and  thus  causes  a  suspension  of  the  sense 
at,  a  particle  or  other  unimportant  word  (as  in  this  sentence). 
Such  an  arrangement  is  hostile  to  clearness,  for  it  obliges  the 
mind  to  halt  at  the  very  points  which  it  would  naturally  hurry 
over;  it  is  also  hostile  to  force,  for  it  emphasizes  words  that 
do  not  *  deserve  distinction '  at  the  expense  of  those  that  do."^* 

Taylor  employs  inversion  sometimes  to  the  point  of  am- 
biguity.   He  writes: 

Ah,  every  utterance  from  the  depths  of  feeling 
The  timid  lips  have  stammeringly  expressed, — 
Now  failing,  now,  perchance,  success  revealing, — 
Gulps  the  wild  Moment  in  its  greedy  breast :  ^ 

If  the  reader  here  depend  solely  upon  his  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish word-order,  he  will,  according  to  Professor  Barrett  Wend- 
ell's arrangement  of  subject,  verb,  object,  interpret  "utter- 
ance "  as  a  nominative  and  "  Moment "  as  an  accusative.    Not 

'Cf.  Barrett  Wendell,  English  Composition,  p.  36  f. 

•  Cf.  A.  S.  Hill,  Principles  of  Rhetoric,  p.  207:  "  Any  order  which  seems 
natural  to  the  persons  addressed  is  easier,  as  well  as  more  forcible,  than 
one  which  strikes  them  as  strange  and  by  its  strangeness  calls  their  atten- 
tion from  the  substance  to  the  form  of  the  sentence." 

"  Cf.  Alexander  Bain,  English  Composition  and  Rhetoric,  v,  I,  p.  3,  §  6 : 
"  As  a  rule  the  least  prominent  position  in  the  sentence,  is  the  middle. 
Hence  for  giving  prominence  we  must  choose  either  the  beginning  or  the 
END."  Cf.  ibid,,  p.  4,  §  9 :  "  Both  usage  and  reason  agree  in  regarding  the 
END  of  the  sentence  as  the  place  of  greatest  strength  of  emphasis." 

"  Cf.  A.  S.  Hill,  Principles  of  Rhetoric,  p.  198. 

"Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  4. 


61 

until  he  turns  to  the  original  text,  can  he  be  quite  certain  that 
he  is  wrong. 

Quite  as  bad  English  as  it  is  good  German  is  Taylor's  prod- 
igal use  of  the  capital.  Instances  of  this  habit  will  be  found 
on  almost  every  page  of  the  "  Faust."  One  of  the  critics 
writes  facetiously :  "  In  his  use  of  capitals  for  substantives 
he  (i.  e.,  Taylor)  surpasses  the  inscrutable  freaks  of  Mr. 
Carlyle  himself.  Thus,  for  instance,  he  speaks  of  the  time 
when  '  brooded  Evil  evil  is  begetting,'^^  though  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  discover  any  superiority  in  point  of  dignity  which  the 
progenitor  in  this  case  possesses  over  his  offspring.  The 
funniest  instance  of  this  capriciousness  we  have  found  occurs 
in  no  less  solemn  a  passage  than  the  Chorus  of  Blessed  Boys, 
where  we  have — '  For  so  tender  unto  all,  it  is,  To  Be.'^^  This 
unexpected  exaltation  of  such  a  modest  preposition  and  such 
a  diminutive  verb  affects  us  very  oddly."^* 

The  responsibility  for  this  most  un-English  mannerism  ought 
not,  however,  to  be  laid  entirely  at  the  door  of  German  in- 
fluence. For  we  shall  find  Taylor  composing  his  prose  notes 
(and  that  too  where  he  is  not  translating)  in  much  the  same 
fashion.^'  It  may  be  objected  that  Taylor  usually  came  fresh 
from  Diintzer  and  Leutbecher  when  he  wrote  his  notes.  Hence 
German  practice  still  maintained  its  hold  upon  him.  But  refer- 
ence to  any  volume  of  Taylor's  poems,  from  "  Rhymes  of 
Travel "  to  "  Prince  Deukalion,"  will  convince  the  skeptical 
that  the  phenomenon  of  lavish  capitalization,  as  exhibited 
throughout  Taylor's  work,  ought  not  to  be  solely  ascribed  to 
German  influence. 

In  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica^^  we  read:  "As  a  critical 
friend^''  has  written  of  him,  '  his  nature  was  so  ardent,  so  full- 

"Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  10. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  307. 

"Cf.  Saturday  Review,  October  7,  1871,  PP.  466  ff. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  Notes,  p.  463 ;  "  Love  is  the  all-uplifting  and  all- 
redeeming  power  on  Earth  and  in  Heaven ;  and  to  Man  it  is  revealed  in 
its  most  pure  and  perfect  form  through  Woman." 

"  Cf.  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  sub  voce  Taylor,  Bayard. 

"  The  reference  is  to  Mr.  Stedman  who  uses  these  words  in  his  article 
on  Taylor  in  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  XIX,  p.  84.  It  is  hardly  possible 
that   two   men    would    express    the   same   thought   in    precisely   the    same 


62 

blooded,  that  slight  and  common  sensations  intoxicated  him, 
and  he  estimated  their  effect,  and  his  power  to  transmit  it  to 
others,  beyond  the  true  value.'  He  felt  life  as  perhaps  only  the 
poetic  temperament  can  experience  the  beauty  of  the  world; 
single  words  thus  became  for  him  so  charged  with  poetry  that 
he  overlooked  the  fact  that  to  most  people  these  were,  simply 
in  themselves,  mere  abstract  terms — sunshine,  sea,  spring, 
morning,  night,  and  so  forth.  Thus  a  stanza  having  absolutely 
nothing  original  or  striking  or  even  poetic  in  it  would,  because 
bom  of  him,  seem  to  be  poetry  unadulterate :  to  his  mind,  each 
line,  each  word,  was  charged  with  delightful  significance,  there- 
fore— so  he  felt — would  be  so  also  to  the  sympathetic  reader." 
It  may  be  then  that  Taylor  looked  upon  capitalization  as  a 
device  whereby  the  reader  might  be  induced  to  take  words,  as 
Taylor  himself  took  them,  at  more  than  their  face  value. 

When  Goethe  writes,  "  Ein  guter  Rath  ist  auch  nicht  zu 
verschmahn"  (1.  7849),  Taylor  is  precipitated  into  a  pitfall  by 
his  zealous  striving  after  fidelity.  He  translates,  "  Good  coun- 
sel, also,  is  not  to  reject"  (11,  136).  It  is  not  possible  in 
English,  however  (save  in  some  few  idiomatic  expressions), 
to  employ,  as  the  German  regularly  does,  an  active  infinitive 
in  a  passive  sense. 

In  true  German  fashion  Taylor  lets  his  reader  wait  unduly 
for  the  preterite  participle.  Sentences  like,  "  I  have  not  snares 
around  thee  cast"  (I,  58),  "Thou  hast  it  destroyed"  (I,  65), 
"  Has  then  my  cry  To  yonder  sky.  The  course  of  Nature  from 
its  orbit  stirred"  (II,  139),  "And  now  by  him  beforehand  to 
his  city  sent"  (II,  165),  are  modelled  closely  after  their  Ger- 
man prototypes,  as  may  be  seen  by  reference  respectively  to 
11.  1426,  1608,  7911-7913,  8525.  Even  where  the  original  text 
does  not  drive  him  to  it,  Taylor  will  prefer  a  German  to  an 
English  cadence,  as  when  he  writes,  "  The  outer  angle,  you 
may  see.  Is  open  left"  (I,  57). 

Of  the  inversion  of  the  subject  after  an  adverb  or  other 
word  not  modifying  the  subject,  I  have  found  some  one  hun- 
dred  and  twenty-five   examples   in   Taylor's   translation.     In 

words,  yet  Mr.  Smyth  ascribes  the  above  quotation  to  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Cf.  Smyth's  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  267. 


63 

many  of  these  cases,  indeed,  in  seven  of  the  fifteen  which  I 
shall  quote,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  inversion  was  not  forced 
upon  Taylor  by  the  particular  sentence  in  the  original,  which 
he  happened  to  be  rendering.  Certain  of  these  inversions, 
together  with  similar  instances  of  the  relegation  of  the  preterite 
participle  to  the  end  of  the  sentence,  seem,  therefore,  to  be  due 
to  fidelity  in  a  larger  sense,  to  an  affectation,  whether  studied 
or  unconscious,  of  the  usage  of  German  syntax.  Thus  Taylor 
writes,  "  Christ  no  more  found  we "  (I,  31),  "Obedience,  more 
than  ever,  claims  he"  (I,  36),  "Yet  in  the  word  must  some 
idea  be"  (I,  79),  "Yet  always  doesn't  the  thing  succeed" 
(I,  114),  "When,  piece  by  piece,  can  one  the  thing  abroad 
display"  (I,  127),  "For  painful  is  it"  (I,  170),  "Pity  they 
the  luckless  man"  (II,  3),  "Favor  I  this  cheerful  place"  (II, 
31),  "How  warned  I  Paris"  (II,  148),  "Now  float  we  con- 
tented" (II,  155),  "Each  other  behold  we  not"  (II,  189), 
"  Forth  from  us  with  swiftness  ran  he  "  (II,  216),  "  Once  with 
the  last  breath  left  the  soul  her  house"  (II,  296),  "Love- 
pangs  felt  they"  (II,  309),  and  "  No  longer  needs  the  alphabet 
thy  nation"  (II,  58).  In  this  last  instance  the  word-order  is 
so  ambiguous  that  the  reader  cannot  be  quite  sure  whether  the 
alphabet  has  ceased  to  need  the  nation  or  vice  versa. 

Taylor,  still  faithful  to  German  syntax,  holds  his  infinitives 
in  abeyance  until  he  has  arrived  at  the  end  of  his  sentence.  In 
the  examples  which  are  about  to  be  cited,  as  indeed  in  the 
hundred  other  instances  which  might  be  quoted,  this  idiosyn- 
crasy was  not  always  forced  upon  the  translator  by  the  corre- 
sponding sentence  in  the  original.  German  word-order  seems 
to  have  been  fluttering  perpetually  before  his  mind's  eye,  and 
German  cadences  seem  to  have  been  singing  in  his  ear.  He 
writes:  "What  use,  a  Whole  compactly  to  present"  (I,  5), 
"But  might,  the  while,  more  useful  be"  (I,  9),  "Who  dares 
the  child's  true  name  in  public  mention  "  (I,  25),  "  One  yearns, 
the  rivers  of  existence,  the  very  founts  of  Life  to  reach " 
(I,  49),  "Who  would  himself  therefrom  deliver"  (I,  69), 
"  And,  God !  who  can  the  field  embrace  "  (I,  80),  "  Can  woman, 
then,  so  lovely  be"  (I,  105),  "By  storm  she  cannot  captured 
be"  (I,  115),  "What  can  within  it  be"  (I,  121),  "Shall  that 


64 

a  nosegay  be"  (I,  143),  "One  dares  not  that  before  chaste 
ears  declare"  (I,  151),  "One  that  to  her  can  a  candle  hold" 
(I,  168),  "Meanwhile,  may  not  the  treasure  risen  be"  (I, 
169),  "Could  I  thy  withered  body  kill"  (I,  174),  "One  must 
not  so  squeamish  be"  (I,  192),  "How  can  I  its  meaning  men- 
tion" (II,  37),  "How  can  he  in  the  cheat  confide"  (II,  52), 
"Things  can't  in  Heaven  more  cheerful  be"  (II,  57),  "Thou 
wilt  my  whispers  like  a  master  heed"  (II,  75),  "Let  me  this 
labyrinth  of  flames  explore"  (II,  106),  "  One  must  with  mod- 
em thought  the  thing  bemaster"  (II,  106),  "Express  thyself, 
and  'twill  a  riddle  be"  (II,  108),  "And  most  impatient  am, 
my  glass  to  shatter"  (II,  136),  "Let  him  an  honest  soldier 
be"  (II,  261),  "Than  rich  to  be"  (II,  280),  "The  traces  can- 
not, of  mine  earthly  being.  In  aeons  perish"  (II,  295),  "Let 
me  in  the  azure  Tent  of  Heaven,  in  light  unfurled.  Here  thy 
Mystery  measure"  (II,  310),  "But  at  once  shall  gentle  be" 

(11,311). 

In  German  we  are  accustomed  after  a  relative  pronoun  or  a 
subordinate  conjunction,  to  find  the  finite  verb  quite  at  the  end 
of  the  sentence.  In  reading  Taylor's  translation  we  gradually 
grow  to  expect  the  same  phenomenon.  In  this  usage  Taylor 
follows  his  model  very  closely.  The  sentences  which  I  shall 
quote,  as  well  as  some  ninety  others  which  I  have  noted,  are 
all  constructed  with  pronounced  literalness  after  the  corre- 
sponding lines  in  Goethe.  Taylor  writes:  "What  you  the 
Spirit  of  the  Ages  call"  (I,  25),  "The  few,  who  thereof 
something  really  learned"  (I,  25),  "As  thou,  up  yonder,  with 
running  and  leaping.  Amused  us  hast"  (I,  49),  "Which  no- 
where worthier  is"  (I,  50),  "And  when  thou  in  the  feeling 
wholly  blessed  art"  (I,  158),  "The  man  who  with  thee  goes  " 
(I,  159),  "  When  thou,  still  innocent,  Here  to  the  altar  cam'st" 
(I,  175),  "  But  howso'er  she  hasten  may  "  (I,  183),  "  He  ne'er 
will  fly,  who  now  not  flies"  (I,  185),  "But  if  you  forwards 
go"  (I,  191),  "He  snuffles  all  he  snuffle  can"  (I,  199),  "For 
such  discourses  very  dangerous  be"  (II,  14),  "How  much  the 
scamp  to  promise  seems"  (II,  41),  "It  almost  seemed  as  if  I 
Pluto  were"  (II,  55),  "When  I  to  thee  Thessalian  witches 
name"  (II,  100),  "If  this  would  only  longer  last"  (II,  135), 


65 

"For  here,  where  spectres  from  their  hell  come"  (II,  136), 
"Though  erewhile,  by  spells  nocturnal.  Thee  Thessalian  hags 
infernal.  Downward  drew"  (II,  145),  "Which  the  true  man 
comfort  gives"  (II,  158),  "When  I  here  with  Clytemnestra 
sister-like.  With  Castor  and  with  Pollux  sporting  grew"  (II, 
164),  "Now  when  all  things  in  order  thou  inspected  hast" 
(II,  167),  "Yet  that  I  Her,  Horrible,  here  with  eyes  behold" 
(II,  172),  "  When  thou  thine  arms  so  fair  Charmingly  liftest" 
(II,  215),  "Let  happen  all  that  happen  can"  (II,  255),  "Art 
thou  Baucis,  who  the  coldly  Fading  mouth  refreshment  gave  " 
(II,  272),  "  When  they  to  me  the  information  gave  "  (II.  294). 

It  is  frequently  the  case  that  a  German  sentence  will  close 
with  an  adverbial  particle.  This  is  excellent  usage  in  German, 
but  it  is  poor  usage  in  English,  since  it  gives  an  unimportant 
word  the  most  prominent  position  in  the  English  sentence — ^the 
end,  and  is  consequently  destructive  of  the  quality  which  Pro- 
fessor A.  S.  Hill  calls  "ease."  Examples  of  this  un-English 
usage  in  Taylor's  translation  are :  "  A  German  can't  endure  the 
French  to  see  or  hear  of"  (I,  95),  "By  the  chimney  out" 
(I,  102),  "I  go  so  little  out"  (I,  163),  "The  sword  Thy  heart 
in"  (I,  166),  "It  hangs  like  lead  my  feet  about"  (II,  17), 
"This  softly  heaving  brine  on"  (II,  162),  "It  rises  heaven- 
ward up "  (II,  186),  "As  with  the  month  they  come,  and  cooked 
with  appetite  in "  (II,  264),  "  Whack!  was  she  caught,  and  fast 
my  claws  her  hide  in"  (II,  297). 

Inelegant  English,  much  better  German  in  fact  than  English, 
are  compounds  formed  of  the  particles  "  there,"  "  where,"  and 
"  here  "  plus  some  preposition  or  other.  Taylor  uses  rather  too 
many  of  them.^^     Goethe's  Gretchen  may  say :  "  Doch ^alles 

"Examples  are:  "therein"  (I,  7,  15,  50,  119,  153,  170,  190;  II,  18,  36, 
67,  95,  118,  191,  230,  237,  242,  24s,  310),  "thereat"  (II,  236),  "there- 
after" (II,  72,  240,  287),  "thereof"  (I,  25),  "thereto"  (I,  50,  58,  65, 
69,  n,  165;  II,  46,  69,  147,  170,  174),  "therefor"  (I,  dd'),  "therefrom" 
(I,  69,  132;  II,  126,  137,  197),  "therewith"  (I,  70,  93,  151,  170,  190;  II, 
IS,  232),  "thereon"  (I,  76,  127,  156,  183,  190,  212;  II,  44,  255),  "there- 
unto" (I,  loi),  "thereby"  (II,  143,  188),  "thereout"  (I,  120),  "where- 
unto"  (II,  233),  "whereon"  (I,  20,  193;  II,  61,  106,  170),  "whereto" 
(I,  20,  Tz',  II,  167),  "whereby"  (I,  24,  101),  "wherefrom"  (I,  25,  109, 
178;  II,  106,  195),  "wherewith"  (I,  64;  II,  84,  141,  175,  270),  "wherein" 
(I,  108),  "whereof"  (I,  192;  II,  ^2,  271,  292),  "herein"  (II,  19), 
"hereon"  (II,  230),  "hereby"  (II,  266). 
6 


66 

was  dazu  mich  trieb,  Gott!  war  so  gut!  ach  war  so  lieb!" 
(11.  3585-3586).  But  Taylor's  Gretchen  ought  not  to  prate 
after  her:  "Yet — ^all  that  drove  my  heart  thereto,  God!  was 
so  good,  so  dear,  so  true!"  (I,  165).  The  word  "thereto" 
might  reasonably  occur  in  some  legal  statement  of  Gretchen's 
wrongs,  but  it  is  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  simplicity  of 
Gretchen's  own  vocabulary,  with  the  unaffected  sadness  of  her 
mood,  and  with  the  lyric  tenderness  of  the  lines.  Again 
Goethe  may  write  properly  enough :  "  So  oft  er  trank  daraus  " 
(1.  2766).  But  Taylor,  when  he  writes  modem  English,  may 
not  imitate  such  usage.  "As  oft  as  he  drank  thereout"  (I, 
120),  is  an  impossible  construction,  since  "out"  now-a-days 
is  an  adverb  and  does  not  lend  itself  to  a  combination  with 
"there,"  "here,"  or  "where." 

I  am  aware  that  in  a  larger  English  grammar — such  as  that 
of  Maetzner  or  of  Bain — one  can  find  whole  lists  of  inversions 
successfully  ventured  upon  by  the  best  English  poets.  Keats 
wrote : 

Much  have  I  travelled  in  the  realms  of  gold 
And  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  seen; 
Round  many  western  islands  have  I  been." 

Wordsworth,  the  champion  of  prose  word-order  in  poetic  dic- 
tion, wrote: 

O  joy!  that  in  our  embers 

Is  something  that  doth  live.** 

And  Tennyson  wrote : 

Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights. 
The  thunders  breaking  at  her  feet : 
Above  her  shook  the  starry  lights.^ 

When  we  read  such  inversions  we  are  conscious  usually  of 
some  charm,  distinction  or  force  which  has  been  gained  by 
means  of  them.  The  great  English  poets  were  masters  and 
language  for  the  most  part  did  their  will.  As  Shakespere  has 
it,  "  Nice  customs  curtsy  to  great  kings."    Where  there  is  no 

"  Cf.  On  first  looking  into  Chapman's  Homer. 
*  Cf.  Ode  on  Intimations  of  Immortality, 
^  Cf.  On  a  Mourner, 


67 

gain  in  grace,  distinction  or  force,  the  use  of  inversion,  even 
in  the  work  of  poets  of  established  repute,  has  been  censured 
by  competent  critics.  Walter  Savage  Landor,  in  the  Imagi- 
nary Conversation  between  Porson  and  Southey,  makes  Porson 
say  that  the  phrases  "  have  I  required  "  and  "  have  I  desired  " 
in  the  first  stanza  of  Wordsworth's  "  Laodameia  "  are  "  worse 
than  prosaic."  Wordsworth  himself  agreed  with  Landor  in 
this  matter,  and  made  some  seemingly  unsuccessful  effort  to 
banish  the  offending  inversions.^^ 

When  we  read  the  inversions  and  transpositions  of  Taylor's 
translation,  we  seek  in  vain  any  sort  of  poetic  compensation 
for  them ;  we  are  affected  solely  by  their  strangeness,  their  all 
too  apparent  necessity,  and  by  Taylor's  thraldom  to  his  instru- 
ment. That  these  inversions  are  due  in  part  to  a  touching 
fidelity  to  the  original  fails  to  reconcile  us  to  them. 

There  remain  certain  inelegancies  of  diction  which  can 
hardly  be  referred  directly  to  the  influence  of  the  German. 
Taylor  deviates  from  normal  English  in  his  use  of  clipped 
forms,  without  the  justification  of  such  expedient  in  his  orig- 
inal. As  Poe  somewhere  inquires,  "  What  can  be  well  said  in 
defense  of  the  unnecessary  nonsense  of  '  ware '  for  '  aware '  ?  "^* 
Taylor  employs  ware  for  aware  (II,  282),  stead  for  instead 
(II,  60,  179,  189,  309),  minishing  for  diminishing  (II,  273), 
twixt  for  betwixt  (I,  45;  II,  197),  wildering  for  bewildering 
(I,  71,  180;  II,  74),  scape  for  escape  (I,  107;  II,  134),  mid 
for  amid  (I,  11 ;  II,  162,  205),  neath  for  beneath  (II,  41,  272, 
283),  em  for  them  (II,  65),  i  for  in  (II,  17),  o  for  of  (I,  12). 
Moreover,  there  is  an  annoyingly  constant  recurrence  of  "  't  is  " 
and  "  't  was  "  and  "  't  were  "  throughout  the  entire  text. 

It  is  a  pity,  I  think,  that  Taylor  did  not  employ  the  pronoun 
ye,  "  As  carefully  discriminated,  especially  in  the  older  English, 
the  nominative  and  vocative  being  ye  and  the  dative  and  accu- 
sative you."^^  The  English  in  which  the  distinction  continued 
to  be  made  is  not  excessively  old.  We  find  the  usage  still 
observed  in  Byron.     Taylor  must  at  least  have  credit  for  having 

^  Cf.  Walter  Savage  Landor,  by  John  Forster,  v.  2,  p.  25. 

^  Cf.  E.  A.  Poe,  The  Literati,  review  of  E.  B.  Barrett's  poems. 

**  Cf.  Century  Dictionary,  sub  voce  ye. 


68 

been  fairly  consistent  in  the  course  he  chose  to  pursue.  He 
writes:  "I  find  ye"  (I,  i),^^  "bind  ye"  (I,  i),  "Be  the  reign 
assigned  ye"  (I,  i),  "my  father  used  ye"  (I,  28),  "What  ails 
ye"  (II,  45),  "unknown  to  ye"  (II,  66),  "ye  I  hail"  (II, 
164),  "from  ye"  (II,  168),  "To  save  herself,  and  ye  appen- 
dages with  her"  (II,  182),  "I  call  ye"  (II,  263),  "upon  Ye 
Five"  (II,  266),  "God's  high  Presence  strengthens  ye"  (II, 
308),  "The  teacher  before  ye"  (II,  308),  "Peace  is  yet  with 
ye"  (11,128). 

Bayard  Taylor  is  often  guilty  of  imperfect  rimes.  But  we 
should  regard  it  as  a  very  considerable  feat  if  any  man  turned 
out  the  twelve  thousand  odd  lines  of  "  Faust "  with  a  faultless 
rime  in  every  instance.  Goethe  himself  did  not  accomplish 
that.^®  Moreover,  Taylor  has  taken  the  sting  from  criticism  by 
admitting  his  defects  in  this  respect.^^  He  says :  "  I  make  no 
apology  for  the  imperfect  rhymes,  which  are  frequently  a  trans- 

^  Cf .  review  of  Taylor's  Faust  in  the  Independent :  "  Mr.  Taylor's 
*  I  find  ye '  is  purely  a  signal  of  distress  for  rhyme,  having  no  equivalent 
in  the  original.  Can  he  have  thought  that  any  '  subtile  and  haunting  music ' 
here  required  him  to  violate  a  plain  rule  of  English  grammar  for  the 
sake  of  '  find  ye  '  rather  than  '  find  you  '  ?  " 

^  Cf .  A.  Bielschowsky,  Goethe :  Sein  Leben  und  seine  Werke,  v.  II,  p. 
262  :  "  Die  Form  des  Faustfragments  ist  der  Hans  Sachsche  Knittelters, 
die  Ausdrucksweise  natiirlich,  oft  geradezu  derb,  der  Reim  schlagend,  aber 
nicht  immer  rein,  zuweilen  sogar  dialektisch  recht  unrein."  Cf.  also 
Herrig,  A.  f.  d.  S.  d.  n.  S.,  v.  XV,  331  ff..  Dr.  Daniel  Sanders  says  "  Dass 
er  (i.  e.,  Goethe)  sich  viele  unreine  Reime  erlaubt  hat,  bedarf  der  Erwahn- 
ung  nicht ;  namentlich  reimt  er  von  Vokalen,  e,  a,  6,  mit  einander ; 
ebenso  i  mit  ii ;  eu  und  ei,  und  beachtet  die  Scharfung  und  Dehnung  der 
Vokale  nicht  immer." 

Cf.  Der  M'dcen,  Berlin  und  Leipzig,  sine  dato,  by  Detlev  von  Liliencron, 
p.  58 :  "  Platen  reimte  rein,  und  das  konnen  die  Deutschen  durchaus  nicht 
leiden  ;  sofort  werden  sie  misstrauisch :  Das  kann  doch  kein  Dichter  sein, 
der  uns  reine  Reime  schenkt.  Mir  ist  ein  unreiner  Reim  wie  eine  Ohrfeige. 
Deshalb  wird  es  mir  auch  so  schwer,  einen  von  mir  zu  den  Hochsten 
geschatzten  Dichter,  Martin  Greif,  zu  lesen.  Seine  Reime,  ahnlich  wie 
bei  Morike,  Schiller,  Goethe,  sind  gradezu  Seelenmorder.  Es  ist  mir  eine 
Unerklarlichkeit :  ein  Dichter  muss  doch  starken  Sinn  fiir  guten  Klang 
und  Schonheit  haben ;  es  muss  ihm  doch  weh  tun,  ihn  schmerzlich  bertihren, 
wenn  er  unrein  reimt  oder  unreine  Reime  hort.  Aber  nein,  es  hilft  nichts. 
Selbst  Gottfried  Keller  reimt  Erde  und  Gefahrte. 

"  Wenn  die  Deutschen  nicht  mehr  Teufel  auf  Zweifel  reimen  diirften, 
fiihren  sie  ohne  Zweufel  zum  Teifel." 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xv. 


69 

lation  as  well  as  a  necessity."  And  in  the  matter  of  rime  we 
ought  reasonably  to  be  lenient  with  a  man  who  attempts  to 
English  a  work  containing  the  line : 

Auf  Teufel  reimt  der  Zweifel  nur;"* 

Nevertheless,  there  are,  I  think,  certain  imperfect  rimes  so 
offensive  to  normal  English  that  they  are  less  tolerable  than 
others.  Among  them  are  the  so-called  Cockney  rimes,  which 
deliberately  invite  to  vulgar  or  slovenly  pronunciation.  There 
are  a  number  of  these  rimes  in  Taylor's  "  Faust."  Indeed,  they 
have  been  detected  in  some  of  Taylor's  work  that  was  not 
translation.^®  In  English  it  is  offensive  to  rime  -in  (or  -en) 
to  -ing,  as  Taylor  sometimes  does: 

On  Sundays,  holidays,  there's  naught  I  take  delight  in  .  .  . 

The  foreign  people  are  a-fighting  (I,  36) 

For  us  be  suing  .  .  . 

Calling  to  ruin.  (1*38) 

I  see  the  plan  thou  art  pursuing: 

Thou  canst  not  compass  general  ruin.  (I,  55) 

Thou'lt  find,  this  drink  thy  blood  compelling. 

Each  woman  beautiful  as  Helen.  (I,  112) 

The  sword  Thy  heart  in, 

With  anguish  smarting.  (I,  166) 

Are  good  to  fish  and  sport  in  .  .  . 

With  even  devils  consorting.  (I,  199) 

Doors  and  entrances  are  open ! 

Well, — at  last  there's  ground  for  hoping.  (II,  89) 

Incline,    O    Maiden, 

With  Mercy  laden. 

In  light  unfading.  (II,  313) 

Other  bad  rimes  are : 

Man's  misery  even  to  pity  moves  my  nature; 

I've  scarce  the  heart  to  plague  the  wretched  creature.     (I,  13) 

*  Cf.  Faust,  I,  1.  4361. 

^  Cf.  Athenaeum,  no.  2666,  p.  686,  review  of  "  Prince  Deukalion " : 
"  Mr.  Taylor  falls  into  rhymes  which,  were  he  an  Englishman,  would  be 
called  Cockney.  In  one  of  the  earliest  lyrics  we  find  thus  '  whistle '  as  a 
rhyme  to  '  dismissal.'  Subsequently  *  repentance  *  rhymes  to  '  sentence,* 
and  '  harden '  to  '  pardon.'  The  occasional  example  of  great  poets  may 
be  advanced  in  palliation  of  this  method  of  forcing  rhymes,  but  cannot 
justify  it." 


70 

Therein  thou'rt  free,  according  to  thy  merits  .  .  . 

Of  all  the  bold,  denying  Spirits.  (I,  15) 

And  have  a  care  to  be  most  civil  .  .  . 

So  humanly  to  gossip  with  the  Devil.  (I,  15) 

I  am  no  hair's-breadth  more  in  height, 

Nor  nearer  to  the  Infinite.  (I,  73) 

By  level  ways  I've  wandered  hither, 

Where  rubble  now  is  piled  together.  (II,  135) 

Three  have  we  brought  hither. 

The  fourth  refused  us  altogether.  (II,  150) 

Quite  as  bad  as  Whittier's  famous  couplet  are  the  lines : 

Were  not  the  first  and  second,  then 

The  third  and  fourth  had  never  been.  (I,  "jy) 

Worst  of  all  perhaps  is  the  following: 

The  broom  it  scratches,  the  fork  it  thrusts, 

The  child  is  stifled,  the  mother  bursts.  (I,  183) 

Taylor  again  deviates  from  normal  English  by  introducing 
archaic,  obsolete  and  dialectic  forms,  which  are  all  the  more 
reprehensible  since  they  are  not  the  equivalent  of  the  original 
text.  Archaic^®  are  such  forms  as  nathless  (I,  69;  II,  68,  93, 
178),  drave  (I,  74),  fere  (I,  106;  II,  187),  dighted  (II,  272),^^ 
fain  as  an  adverb,  which  is  constantly  recurring  as  a  handy 
equivalent  of  the  German  monosyllabic  gem  (I,  29,  75,  y6,  80, 
93,  115,  128,  178,  184,  196,  210;  II,  23,  34,  81,  97,  132,  136, 
147,  153,  165,  169,  180,  191,  217,  223,  247,  250,  274,  294), 
vagrance  (I,  197),  childed  (II,  125),  joyance  (I,  115),  an  in 
the  sense  of  if  (I,  58),  eke  (I,  61),  drunken  in  the  predicative 
use  (I,  64),  the  verb  won  or  wone,  of  which  Taylor  uses  the 
third  person  singular  preterite  indicative  (I,  28),  fa/re  in  the 
sense  of  travel,  proceed  (I,  45;  II,  37),  fray  in  the  sense  of 
affray  (I,  63),  sprent  the  preterite  participle  of  spreng  (II,  55, 
302),  hight  (I,  17),  ^ez'in  (II,  253). 

^  These  words  are  pronounced  archaic  or  obsolete  on  the  authority  of  the 
Century  Dictionary. 

"  Not  only  is  the  verb  dight  archaic,  but  Taylor  has  formed  the 
preterite  participle  incorrectly.  Cf.  Century  Dictionary  sub  voce  dight, 
where  the  preterite  participle  is  given  as  dight. 


71 

Dialectal  is  the  form  "abcx>n."^=^  It  is  "northern  English 
or  Scotch."^^  "  Thee  "  as  a  nominative  is  a  Quakerism.^*  It 
is  the  "  perverted  use  of  the  obj.  thee  "  affected  by  the  Friends.^** 
At  least  that  seems  a  rather  natural  way  of  explaining  it,  for, 
while  Bayard  Taylor's  "  family  was  not  formally  in  the  Society 
of  Friends,  they  adhered  generally  to  the  principles  of  the 
Society.  His  mother,  although  brought  up  in  the  Lutheran 
faith,  became  attached  to  the  Quakers  early  in  life,  and  taught 
her  children  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Society,  as  well 
as  naturally  adopted  the  manners  and  ways  which  prevailed  in 
the  region."^®  At  times  Taylor  employed  Quaker  mannerisms 
in  his  letters.^^  But  it  is  possible  nonetheless  that  Taylor  him- 
self would  have  preferred  to  explain  his  "thee"  nominative 
as  Elizabethan  usage.^^  "Already  once"  is  a  Teutonism  in 
the  line 

Already  once  was  I  so  blest." 

Precisely  what  Bayard  Taylor  meant  by  the  word  wreak  in 
such  sentences  as : 

Body  and  soul  thereon  I'll  wreak.  (I,  y6) 

His  grace  the  sculptors  could  not  wreak.  (II,  119) 

I  am  not  prepared  to  say;  hardly  (wenge,  inflict,  or  execute, 
yet  these  are  the  significations  of  that  word. 

The  number  of  actual  solecisms  discoverable  in  Taylor's 
work  is  comparatively  small.  The  "  Century  Dictionary  "  does 
not  recognize  the  archaic  childed  in  that  sense  in  which  it  is 

"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  4. 

^  Cf.  Century  Dictionary  sub  voce  aboon. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  66. 
^  Cf.  Century  Dictionary  sub  voce  thee. 
^  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  pp.  11-12, 
"  Cf .  Life  and  Letters,  v.  I,  p.  ii. 

^  Cf .  E.  A.  Abbott,  Shakespearian  Grammar,  p.  141,  §212;  "Verbs  fol- 
lowed by   thee  instead  of   thou  have  been  called  reflexive.      But  though 

*  haste  thee,*  and  some  other  phrases  with  verbs  of  motion,  may  be  thus 
explained,  and  verbs  were  often  thus  used  in  E.  E.,  it  is  probable  that 

*  look  thee'  '  hark  thee,'  are  to  be  explained  by  euphonic  reasons.  Thee, 
thus  used,  follows  imperatives  which,  being  themselves  emphatic,  require 
an  unemphatic  pronoun.      The  Elizabethans  reduced  thou  to  thee" 

~Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  IIS. 


72 

obviously  employed  by  Taylor,  as  a  synonym  of  pregnant.*^  It 
records  no  verb  to  bliss,  as  employed  by  Taylor  in  the  line : 

I  blissed  it  all  this  livelong  night.  (I,  209) 

And  it  does  not  recognize  Taylor's  adjective  impermeate.^^  It 
does  not  approve  the  noun  festal  as  used  by  Taylor  in  the  lines : 

To  festals  calm  and  cheery.  (II,  150) 

Leading  these  festals  cheery.  (II,  151) 

No  excuse  can  be  offered  for  Worser  (II,  264),  or  the  pleo- 
nastic ^wc/t /^^^  (11,270).  Nor  is  it  in  accordance  with  English 
usage  to  say:  two  only  races  (II,  14),  out  of  place  to  (I,  50), 
prevent  to  do  (I,  63),  succeed  to  do  (I,  190),  or 

None  ever  see  you,  none  are  seen  by  you.  (II,  142) 
None  of  all  the  wooers  here 

Now  around  thee  hover.  (II,  25) 

By  this  marvel  profit  none.  (II,  124) 

Bayard  Taylor's  inversions  and  other  departures  from  nor- 
mal English  strike  us  by  reason  of  their  strangeness,  not  by 
reason  of  their  felicity.  At  cost  of  them  he  has  made  no  gain 
in  charm,  distinction  or  force.  It  is  evident  that  when  he 
composed  his  "  Faust,"  German,  not  English,  cadences  were 
singing  in  his  ear ;  and  we  are  very  ready  to  believe  Professor 
Smyth  when  he  says :  "  He  knew  by  heart  the  entire  First  Part 
of  *  Faust'  and  most  of  the  Second;  and  he  frequently  made 
his  translation  from  the  ring  of  the  original  in  his  ear  and  not 
from  a  perusal  of  the  printed  page."*^ 

And  after  all  this  is  but  an  instance  of  the  Scylla  and 
Charybdis,  which  is  common  to  all  translation,  according  to 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  who  wrote :  "  Alles  Ubersetzen  scheint 

*»  Cf.  Faust,  II,  p.  125. 

"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  S3.  Cf.  also  Life  and  Letters,  v.  II,  p.  553,  where 
Taylor  writes :  "  I  thought  the  .  .  .  's  would  amuse  you.  Don't  be 
deceived  by  the  fellow  seeming  to  know  English.  What  he  says  of 
impermeate  is  infernal  nonsense.  I  suppose  he  would  say  that  immingle 
means  not  to  mingle.  He  doesn't  know  that  im  is  the  Latin  inter  in  this 
case,  and  perfectly  correct."  The  blank  doubtless  is  to  be  filled  in  with 
the  name  of  the  Rev.  W.  C.  Wilkinson,  who  reviewed  Taylor's  Faust  in 
the  Independent  and  objected  at  considerable  length  to  this  word  impermeate, 

**Cf.  A.  H.  Smyth,  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  182. 


73 

mir  schlechterdings  ein  Versuch  zur  Auflosung  einer  unmog- 
lichen  Aufgabe.  Denn  jeder  Ubersetzer  muss  immer  an  einer 
der  beiden  Klippen  scheitem,  sich  entweder  auf  Kosten  des 
Geschmacks  und  Sprache  seiner  Nation  zu  genau  an  sein 
Original,  oder  auf  Kosten  seines  Originals  zu  sehr  an  die 
Eigentiimlichkeit  seiner  Nation  zu  halten.  Das  Mittel  hier- 
zwischen  ist  nicht  bloss  schwer,  sondem  geradezu  unmoglich."*^ 

*^This  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Humboldt  to  A.  W.  von 
Schlegel,  July  23,  1796..  It  will  be  found  quoted  by  Paul  Cauer  in  Die 
Kunst  des  Ubersetzens,  p.  4. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Concerning  the  Poetic  Worth  of  Taylor's  Translation 

There  are  persons  perhaps  who  would  consider  this  chapter 
superfluous.  Professor  Barrett  Wendell,  for  example,  main- 
tains that  Bayard  Taylor  "never  undertook  to  turn  *  Faust' 
into  an  English  poem,"^  In  this  statement,  it  is  probable  that 
Professor  Barrett  Wendell  intends  that  the  accent  shall  rest 
upon  the  word  "  poem,"  since  he  had  already  told  us  that  the 
translation  "  in  nowise  resembles  normal  English."^  I  think 
that  Professor  Barrett  Wendell  must  be  mistaken.  If  Bayard 
Taylor  did  not  imagine  that  he  was  writing  poetry,  he  would 
hardly  have  tricked  out  his  translation,  at  cost  of  much  patient 
toil,  with  all  the  outward  garb  of  poetry,  simply  that  it  might 
the  better  remind  us  of  what  it  was  not. 

We  know  that  Taylor  aspired  to  produce  "  nothing  less  than 
the  English  '  Faust.' "^  We  know  that  when  his  work  was 
done  he  was  persuaded  that  he  had  produced  ''the  English 
'Faust,'  which  will  henceforth  be  the  only  one."*  And  we 
know  furthermore  that  he  believed  that  the  production  of  such 
an  English  "  Faust "  was  "  the  next  thing  to  writing  a  great 
original  epic."^  Mrs.  Taylor  says  too  that  it  was  her  hus- 
band's intention  to  make  an  English  poem  of  "  Faust."  There- 
fore since  it  seems  probable  that  Taylor  intended  his  trans- 
lation of  "  Faust "  to  be  a  poem,  we  are  justified,  I  think,  in 
inquiring  whether  it  is  or  is  not  poetical. 

Boyesen  thinks,  on  the  one  hand,  that  it  is  poetical.  He  says : 
"Of  the  many  translations  of  *  Faust,'  I  regard  Bayard  Tay- 
lor's as  the  best.    Its  shortcomings  have  been  ably  stated  both 

*  Cf.  Barrett  Wendell,  Literary  History  of  America,  p.  458. 
« Cf.  ibid, 

'  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  458. 

*  Cf .  Life  and  Letters,  p.  551. 
"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  511. 

74 


75 

by  friendly  and  unfriendly  critics ;  but  these  are,  to  my  mind, 
compensated  for  by  a  poetic  afflatus  which  distinguishes  the 
book  and  proves  it  to  be  the  work  of  a  poet.  ...  I  believe  I 
am  acquainted  with  all  translations  of  *  Faust '  into  English, 
and  I  have,  after  much  study,  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
Taylor's  unites  more  excellences  than  any  of  the  others.  If 
I  were  to  state  its  claim  to  superiority  in  one  word,  I  should 
say  that,  generally  speaking,  it  is  poetry/'®  On  the  other  hand, 
Mr.  Dennett  says :  "  That  he  (i.  e.,  the  reader)  really  gets  the 
poem  qua  poem,  apart  from  its  metres,  more  fully  and  surely 
by  reason  of  Mr.  Taylor's  labors  in  verse  than  if  that  gentleman 
had  put  his  translation  into  prose  or  had  corrected  Hayward, 
we  do  not  think;  in  our  opinion  the  poetical  translation  of 
'  Faust '  Mr.  Taylor  has  not  brought  essentially  nearer."^ 

After  one  has  read  diligently  in  the  prefaces  to  "  Faust " 
and  in  the  letters  written  by  Taylor  while  he  was  making  his 
translation,  and  immediately  after  its  publication,  one  carries 
away  a  single  word  as  characteristic  of  the  undertaking.  This 
word  is  "  labor."  Thus  Taylor  reiterates :  "  I  have  at  least  la- 
bored long  and  patiently."^  "  Such  time  as  I  can  spare  .  .  . 
is  devoted  to  my  translation  of  'Faust' — a  heart-rending  yet 
intensely  fascinating  labor."®  "  In  concluding  this  labor  of 
years."^^  "  I  have  been  working  day  and  night  on  '  Faust ' 
since  I  saw  you,  and  now  that  the  work  is  just  about  finished, 
I  shall  feel  thoroughly  worn  out,  exhausted,  used  up,  collapsed, 
effete,  intellectually  impotent.  I  only  hope  there  will  be  some 
little  recognition  of  my  labors  in  the  end."^^  "Yet,  after  all, 
the  translation  was  not  more  laborious  than  the  preparation  of 
the  Notes."^^  "  The  labor  has  been  an  immense  advantage  in 
the  way  of  drill."^^     "  My  labors  on  the  First  Part  were  so 

"  Cf.  H.  H,  Boyesen,  Essays  on  German  Literature,  English  Translations 
of  Goethe,  1898,  p.  119. 

'  Cf.  Nation,  March  23,  1871,  p.  201. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  I,  pref.,  p.  xvi. 
•  Ct.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  458. 
"  Cf.  Faust,  II,  pref.,  p.  xiv. 
"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  535. 
"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  537. 
"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  537. 


76 

severe  and  steady  that  I  narrowly  escaped  a  fever,  and  some 
rest  was  absolutely  necessary."^*  ^'  If  my  *  Faust '  is  what  I 
mean  it  to  be,  it  will  have  a  permanent  place  in  translated 
literature.  No  one  else  is  likely,  very  soon,  to  undertake  an 
equal  labor."^^  "There  is  long,  severe,  and  conscientious 
labor  in  the  volume."^^  "  In  three  weeks,  D.  V.,  the  MS.  of 
that  (i.  e.y  the  Second  Part),  also,  will  be  completed;  and  I 
foresee  that  the  long  foregone  freedom  will  make  me  seem 
quite  lost  and  restless, — as  a  man  suddenly  thrust  out  of  peni- 
tentiary, after  seven  years  of  solitary  labor !  "^^  "  When  you 
see  the  volume  {i.  e.,  the  Second  Part),  you  will  guess  how 
much  laborious  research  was  necessary."^^  "The  fact  is,  my 
labors  in  'Faust '  almost  broke  me  down  completely."^^  "  It 
(i.  e.y  "Faust")  cost  me  years  of  the  severest  labor."^®  "It 
(i.  e.,  "  Faust")  was  by  no  means  a  happy  inspiration:  it  was 
the  result  of  hard  and  honest  labor."^^  We  can  imagine  many 
excellent  things  resulting  from  so  much  labor — but  hardly 
poetry.^2 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  539. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  540. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  549. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  549. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  552. 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  561. 

**  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  631. 

^Cf.  Lippincott,  August,  1879,  p.  211.  These  quotations  suggest  a  line 
in  the  American  Literature  of  Miss  K.  L.  Bates  (p.  194)  :  "  The  master 
of  *  towered  Cedar-croft '  was  still  the  terrible  toiler."  Cf.  also  Works 
of  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  edited  by  Harry  Buxton  Forman,  London,  1880, 
V.  VII,  p.  137:  "I  appeal  to  the  greatest  poets  of  the  present  day,  whether 
it  is  not  an  error  to  assert  that  the  finest  passages  of  poetry  are  produced 
by  labour  and  study.  The  toil  and  the  delay  recommended  by  critics,  can 
be  justly  interpreted  to  mean  no  more  than  a  careful  observation  of  the 
inspired  moments,  and  an  artificial  connexion  of  the  spaces  between  their 
suggestions  by  the  intertexture  of  conventional  expressions ;  a  necessity 
only  imposed  by  the  limitedness  of  the  poetic  faculty  itself;  for  Milton 
conceived  the  Paradise  Lost  as  a  whole  before  he  executed  it  in  portions. 
We  have  his  own  authority  also  for  the  muse  having  '  dictated '  to  him 
the  'unpremeditated  song.'  And  let  this  be  an  answer  to  those  who 
would  allege  the  fifty-six  various  readings  of  the  first  line  of  the  Orlando 
Furioso.  Compositions  so  produced  are  to  poetry  what  mosaic  is  to 
painting." 

^'Cf.  North  American  Review,  v.  128,  p.  508:  "His  (t.  e.,  Taylor's) 
method  was  rather  the  method  of  painstaking  labor  than  of  quick  insight. 


77 

Taylor  once  wrote  concerning  translation  to  an  acquaintance, 
and  remarked  incidentally  relative  to  his  own  method :  "  What 
would  you  say  to  my  hunting  up  twenty  or  thirty  synonyms 
for  every  chief  word  in  a  quatrain,  and  then  spending  two  or 
three  hours  in  making  them  fit  in  the  best  possible  form?"^* 
We  should  say  that  such  a  process  might  produce  a  curious, 
an  ingenious  mosaic  of  no  little  intellectual  interest — ^but  hardly 
poetry. 

Some  thirty  years  before  Taylor  published  his  "  Faust,"  a 
writer  in  Blackwood's  Magazine  considered  the  subject  of  the 
poetical  translation  of  the  poem.  His  advice  to  the  prospective 
translator  of  "  Faust "  in  verse  may  be  reduced  to  that  given 
the  Dichter  by  the  Director: 

So  commandirt  die  Poesie!" 

The  translator's  verses  may  not  order  him  about,  they  may 
not  drive  him  to  vagaries  of  sentence  structure,  of  vocabulary, 
of  grammar.  For  all  these  things  emphasize  the  unreality  of 
the  vehicle,  the  impotence  of  the  poet.  "  What  we  desire  to 
be  made  to  feel  to  a  great  extent  in  every  work  of  art,  is  the 
power  of  the  artist.  We  behold  nothing  worth  looking  at, 
unless  we  behold  him  exercising  a  triumphant  mastery  over 
untractable  and  refractory  materials.  Like  Van  Amburgh  with 
his  tigers,  he  must  make  language  lie  down  at  his  feet,  kiss 
his  hands,  and  follow  him  whithersoever  he  will.  But  when 
we  find  him  permitting  his  verse  to  interfere  with  the  natural 

On  one  occasion  ...  a  hearer  said  to  him  that  his  method  recalled 
a  visit  he  had  made,  a  few  days  before,  to  the  studio  of  Church,  who  had 
on  his  easel  the  celebrated  picture  of  Niagara  .  .  .  the  visitor  put  to  the 
artist  the  obvious  question,  *  How  soon  will  the  work  be  finished  ?  '  The 
artist  measured  the  canvas  with  his  eye,  and  quietly  said  that,  at  the  rate 
of  his  proceeding,  so  many  days  in  the  week,  so  many  hours  in  the  day, 
the  picture  would  be  completed  in  about  two  weeks.  He  worked  steadily, 
gaining  ground  inch  by  inch,  and  was  certain  that,  if  each  detail  was 
conscientiously  executed,  the  final  result  would  be  harmonious  to  the  eye 
and  true  to  nature.  Mr.  Taylor  was  struck  and  gratified  by  the  com- 
parison. '  Yes,'  said  he,  '  that  is  the  way.  Put  the  parts  together,  and 
you  make  the  whole.'  But  this  is  not  the  way  of  genius ;  and  genius,  it  is 
commonly  allowed,  Mr.  Taylor  had  not.  He  may  have  had  what  is  more 
serviceable,  but  he  had  not  that." 
^  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  SSi. 

^  Cf.    1.    221. 


78 

idiom  and  arrangement  of  his  speech,  we  behold  this  exhibi- 
tion reversed;  the  language  has  here  got  the  upper  hand  of 
the  artist,  and  we  are  made  sensible  of  nothing  but  his  weak- 
ness— an  unpleasing  object  of  contemplation  at  all  times.''^** 
Elsewhere  we  think  we  have  shown  that  Bayard  Taylor  has 
done  many  of  those  things  which  he  ought  not  to  have  done. 
"  His  language,"  to  use  the  words  of  yet  another  English  re- 
viewer concerning  yet  another  doer  of  "  Faust "  into  English 
verse,  "is  hardly  ever  natural  or  idiomatic,  hardly  ever  such 
as  any  human  being  but  a  namby-pamby  rhymester  would 
employ;  the  adjectives  follow  and  precede  the  substantives, 
and  the  nominatives  and  accusatives  the  verbs,  not  according  to 
any  rules  of  grammar  or  idiom,  but  according  as  may  be  found 
necessary  to  complete  the  scanning  or  final  jingle  of  the  lines; 
and  when,  as  often  happens,  the  most  forced  inversion  proves 
insufficient  to  supply  the  required  quantity  or  accentuation  of 
syllables,  it  is"  Bayard  Taylor's  "wont  to  add  or  substitute 
some  wretched  nonsense  of  his  own."^® 

We  are  warranted,  I  think,  in  requiring  of  Taylor's  trans- 
lation, as  Professor  Calvin  Thomas  requires  of  Goethe's 
"  Faust,"  that  both  parts  "  stand  or  fall  as  poetry."^^  In  the 
case  of  Taylor's  "  Faust "  we  cannot  add,  as  Professor  Thomas 
does  of  Goethe's :  "  And  they  are  going  to  stand."  The  truth 
of  the  matter  is  this.  If  we  judge  by  the  eye  alone.  Bayard 
Taylor's  "  Faust "  certainly  does  resemble  Goethe's  "  Faust." 
There  is  the  same  varying  length  of  line,  the  same  masses  of 
recitative  vers  irreguliers  relieved  by  stanzaic  lyrics,  the  same 
infrequent  patches  of  prose;  and  all  these  things  in  just  that 
order  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  Goethe.  If  we  judge  by 
the  ear  alone.  Bayard  Taylor's  "  Faust "  still  resembles  Goethe's 
"Faust,"  although  not  as  closely  as  when  we  judged  by  the 
eye.  There  is  the  same  alternation  of  varying  meters,  the 
same  feet  and  the  same  cadences  assume  much  their  wonted 
order,  there  is  usually  rime  where  Goethe  has  taught  us  to 
expect  it,  there  is  usually  none  where  Goethe  has  omitted  it, 

**  Cf.  Blackwood's  Magazine,  v.  47,  p.  223. 

*  Cf.   Fraser,   v.    p.    88 ;    review   of   Blackie's    and    Syme's    translations. 

"  Cf.  Goethe's  Faust,  edited  by  Calvin  Thomas,  v.  II,  pref,,  p.  i. 


79 

and  in  several  cases  there  is  a  reproduction  of  an  original 
leonine  rime.^® 

It  is  when  we  come  to  judge  Bayard  Taylor's  "  Faust "  with 
our  intelligence  and  our  aesthetic  sense  that  we  conclude  it 
is  not  poetry,  and  that  too  quite  aside  from  occasional  prosy, 
awkward,  inelegant  or  sometimes  unparsable  lines  like  these: 

...  for  any 
Will  finally,  himself,  his  bit  select.  (I,  5) 

.  .  .  what  mean  perturbation 
Thee,  superhuman,  shakes.  (I,  22) 

That  brain,  alone,  not  loses  hope,  (I,  26) 

Who  knows  not  their  sense 
(These  elements), — 
Their  properties 
And  power  not  sees, — 
No  mastery  he  inherits 
Over  the  Spirits. 

Thyself  hast  led  thyself  into  the  meshes. 
Brightlier 
Build  it  again. 

Each  one  learns  only — just  what  learn  he  can. 
Allow  me  that  my  album  first  I  reach  you. 
I  feel  so  small  before  others. 
Yet  always  doesn't  the  thing  succeed. 
Yourself,  perhaps,  would  keep  the  bubble. 
Ladies  with  him  delighted  are. 
Your  courtesy  an  easy  grace  is. 
My  darling,  who  shall  dare 
"  I  believe  in  God !  "  to  say. 
Live  with  the  like  of  him,  may  I  never. 
Thou,  monster,  wilt  nor  see  nor  own 
How  this  pure  soul,  of  faith  so  lowly. 
So  loving  and  ineffable, — 
The  faith  alone 

That  her  salvation  is, — with  scruples  holy 
Pines,  lest  she  hold  as  lost  the  man  she  loves  so  well.  (I,  161) 
.  .  .  For  painful  is  it 

To  bring  no  gift  when  her  I  visit.  (I,  170) 

That  arbitrarily,  here,  ourselves  we  isolate.  (I,  183) 

*Cf.  Faust,  I,  p.  40;  II,  p.  loi. 


(I, 

52) 

(I, 

58) 

(I, 

6s) 

(I. 

80) 

(I. 

81) 

(I. 

82) 

(I, 

114) 

(I, 

119) 

(I. 

134) 

(I. 

139) 

(I, 

IS7) 

(I. 

IS9) 

80 

But  there  enigmas  also  knotted  be.  (I,  i86) 

Go  a- foot  no  more  we  can,  (I,  201) 

Like  water  in  leaky  pipes — don't  come.  (II,  12) 

But  deepliest  hidden,  wisdom  may  detect  it.  (II,  14) 

Motley  fancies  blossom  may.  (II,  24) 

Know  that,  given  to  me  for  wearing, 

Lately  were  the  shears  supplied.  (II,  31) 

Steel  and  poison  I,  not  malice, 

Mix  and  sharpen  for  the  traitor.  (II,  33) 

Through  the  crowd  you  see  it  wend  not.  (II,  37)** 

But,  clearlier  seen,  'tis  slave  that  fights  with  slave.     (II,  100) 

Then  they  conceive,  themselves  have  found  it  out.     (II,  91) 

How  should  these  dark  surroundings  suit  his 

Desires,  when  them  I  scarce  can  bear.  (II,  99) 

The  mimic  woods  enkindled  are.  (II,  53) 

I've  not  said  nothing,  that  I  know.  (II,  100) 

To  whom  the  Impossible  is  lure 

I  love.  (II,  123) 

If  she,  in  a  single  night, 

The  Pygmies  brought  to  light, 

Pygmiest  of  all  she'll  create  yet. 

And  each  find  his  mate  yet.  (II,  128) 

I  try  the  tall  one,  yet  she  worse  is.  (II,  134) 

Three  have  we  brought  hither. 

The  fourth  refused  us  altogether: 

He  was  the  right  one,  said  he, — 

Their  only  thinker  ready.  (II,  150) 

And  where  to  move,  thy  will  be  free.  (II,  157) 

So  spake  he,  urging  my  departure;  but  no  thing 

Of  living  breath  did  he,  who  ordered  thus,  appoint. 

That  shall,  to  honor  the  Olympian  God's,  be  slain.      (II,  167) 

Kindest  one,  thee, — we,  the  happy.  (II,  168) 

This  the  king  not  indicated.  (II,  180) 

Ah,  may  not  to  us  the  tones  not  also. 

Stead  of  deliverance  promised. 

Ruin  announce  at  the  last! — 

Us,  the  swan-like  and  slender. 

Long  white  throated,  and  She, 

Our  fair  swan  begotten.  (II,  189) 

"The  not  in  this   sentence  ought  properly  to  modify  see,  which  one 
would  hardly  guess  from  its  present  position. 


.  .  .  sport  of  every  breeze 

That  blows  mischance  or  luck !  and  neither  ever  ye 

Supported  calmly.  (II,  190) 
.  .  .  One  is  sure  to  contradict 

The  others  fiercely,  and  cross-wise  the  others  her.  (II,  190) 

And  all  was  over  with  the  West.  (II,  196) 
Majesty  here  not  withholds  its 

Secretest  raptures.  (II,  201) 

And  thus  warns  the  faithful  father:  "Dwells  in  earth  the 

forms  elastic."  (II,  209) 

That  me  hath  won.  (II,  213) 

Danger  his  arrogance  brings.  (II,  220) 

Queens,  of  course,  are  satisfied  everywhere.  (II,  224) 
For  allure  us  yonder  distant,  richly-mantled  mountain  ranges. 

(11, 225) 

Yes !  mine  eyes  not  err.  (II,  228) 

Tis  nothing  new  whatever  that  one  hears.  (II,  234) 

The  riot  rose,  the  riot  was  consecrated.  (II,  237) 

Not  man,  nor  God,  nor  Devil,  him  could  save.  (II,  245) 

Must  personally  be  worthy  of  the  same.  (II,  246) 
Swift  shall  he  punish  when  he  learns  the  truth — the  latter. 

(II,  268) 

Gave  the  mandate  not  the  herald.  (II,  274) 
The  royal  wealth 

Displease  him  must.  (II,  278) 

Inwardly  his  darkness  dense  is.  (II,  290) 

Nothing,  indeed,  can  longer  one  confide  in.  (II,  296) 

Tricked  so  in  one's  old  days,  a  great  disgust  is.  (II,  304) 
Thou,  in  immaculate  ray, 

Mercy  not  leavest.  (II,  311) 

Thou  Thy  presence  not  deniest.  (II,  312) 

Will  richher  love  us.  (II,  313) 

We  shall  hunt  up  and  down  the  five  hundred  odd  pag-es  of 
Taylor's  text  in  vain  for  any  couplet  that  we  may  set  over 
against  Shelley's: 

The  giant-snouted  crags,  ho !  ho ! 
How  they  snort  and  how  they  blow! 

That  is  true  of  the  verses  of  Taylor's  "Faust"  which  was 
said  of  other  verses  of  Taylor.     They  are  "  most  distinctly  not 
7 


82 

born  nympharum  sanguims — not  flush  with  immortal  youth, 
full  of  the  lux  alma  of  the  other  world.  Metrical  difficulties 
of  astonishing  intricacy  are  overcome  in  some  of  the  lyrics 
.  .  .  but  there  is  no  vivifying  breath,  no  line  that  sticks,  or 
stings,  or  sings."^^  That  Bayard  Taylor's  translation  is  not 
poetic  should  surprise  no  one. 

To  produce  a  lineal,  literal,  rime  and  rhythm  preserving 
translation  of  "  Faust "  is  a  task  greater  than  any  man  has  yet 
performed.  To  require  that  such  a  translation  be  also  poetical 
is  to  demand  the  impossible.^^  But  even  if  Bayard  Taylor  had 
not  bent  his  efforts  toward  the  production  of  a  facsimile  of 
the  outward  "  Faust,"  I  still  question  whether  he  could  have 
given  us  a  poetic  "Faust."  Taylor  was  a  journalist  rather 
than  a  poet.  He  lacked  the  nice  discrimination  of  a  poet. 
Ideas  came  to  him  in  such  form  as  would  have  made  them 
serve  admirably  as  leaders  in  the  Tribune,  but  he  insisted 
on  making  poems  of  them.  Thus  the  self-conscious  virtue  of 
the  Transcendentalists,  and  their  confident  belief  in  their  ability 
to  direct  their  own  destiny,  were  repellant  to  Bayard  Taylor. 
So  he  made  the  thing  into  a  poem  and  called  it  "  My  Mission."^^ 
He  discovered  that  the  uses  of  the  flesh  are  not  all  sinful,  and 
that  one  may  be  righteous  without  church  affiliations,  and  he 
made  a  poem  about  that,  calling  it  "  Penn  Calvin."^*  He  was 
much  displeased  at  the  suggested  substitution  of  physiology  for 
sentiment  as  a  basis  for  love  and  marriage.  He  put  the  matter 
into  poetry  and  called  it  "  Cupido."^* 

"  The  Masque  of  the  Gods  "  and  "  Prince  Deukalion  "  are 
exaggerated  examples  of  this  lack  of  nice  discrimination. 
"  The  Masque  of  the  Gods  "  has  been  described  as  "  an  essay 
in  comparative  theology  written  in  the  form  of  a  dramatic 

^  Cf.  Critic,  V.  2,  p.  195. 

'^  Cf.  Nation,  v.  29,  p.  387,  "  We  leave  out  of  account  in  our  censures 
such  poetical  translations  as  Taylor's  *  Faust,'  and,  perhaps,  Longfellow's 
*  Dante,'  for  translating  poetry  is,  after  all,  contending  with  impossibilities." 

'^'Cf.  The  Poems  of  Bayard  Taylor,  1866,  p.  254.  This  poem  is  omitted 
in  the  definitive  edition  of  1902. 

^'Cf.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Household  Edition,  1902, 
p.  312. 

^Cf.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Household  Edition,  1902, 
p.  149. 


83 

poem."^''  The  seat  of  the  evil  in  "  Prince  Deukalion "  has 
been  indicated  facetiously  in  this  wise :  "  It  would  in  any  case 
require  great  skill  to  make  us  see  a  real  woman  in  a  being  who 
has  been  labelled  at  the  beginning  the  Mediaeval  Ecclesiastical 
System;  and  neither  in  her  case  nor  in  the  other  characters, 
whose  principle  of  life  is  not  so  plain,  has  Mr.  Taylor  breathed 
into  his  creations  any  very  vigorous  life  or  brought  about  any 
illusion."^®  In  brief,  Bayard  Taylor  had  the  intelligence  of  a 
well-trained  journalist;  he  had  not  the  emotions  or  the  nice 
discrimination  of  a  poet. 

That  he  was  still  the  journalist  when  he  translated  "  Faust " 
was  emphasized  in  an  article  which  appeared  a  few  days  after 
his  death.  "  To  point  out  this  stimulating,  strengthening,  edu- 
cating tendency  of  his  literary  work  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  in  his  books  as  elsewhere  he  was  first  of  all  a 
journalist.  As  a  journalist  it  was  his  business  to  make  his 
learning  vicarious;  he  observed  and  studied  that  other  men 
might  know;  he  wrote  as  a  journalist  must  whose  gift  and 
duty  it  is  to  give  to  others  the  fruits  of  his  activity;  whose 
business  it  is  to  inform  himself  in  order  that  he  may  inform 
his  readers,  and  to  cultivate  himself  in  order  that  his  judg- 
ments may  be  sound,  his  thinking  wise,  his  teaching  whole- 
some. Whithersoever  he  went  and  whatever  he  did  he  was 
always  the  journalist  above  everything  else,  and  whatever  form 
circumstances  might  give  to  the  productions  of  his  pen,  whether 
he  wrote  articles  for  newspapers,  books  or  lectures,  his  work 
was  always  essentially  that  of  the  journalist  enthusiastically 
eager  to  share  with  the  public  whatever  he  knew  or  thought  or 
felt.  .  .  .  So,  too,  in  his  translation  of  '  Faust,'  which,  upon 
the  surface,  appears  to  have  been  a  purely  literary  work,  the 
impulse  of  the  journalist  is  present.  It  was  because  he  saw  in 
'  Faust '  that  which  English-speaking  men  had  never  had  an 
opportunity  to  see,  that  he  sought,  in  translating  the  poem,  to 

'^  Cf.  New  York  Evening  Post,  April  6,  1872. 

®*  Cf.  Nation,  v.  27,  p.  337.  Cf.  also  review  of  Prince  Deukalion, 
Athenaeum,  no.  2666,  p.  686,  "  Our  author  will  make  few  converts,  for  he 
will  obtain  few  readers.  He  has  something  to  say,  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
verse  is  the  best  medium  by  aid  of  which  to  say  it.  It  is  at  least  a 
medium  in  which  he  works  with  difficulty." 


84 

give  us  Goethe's  masterpiece  in  its  fulness.  It  was  precisely 
as  if  he  had  discovered  such  a  poem  in  manuscript  somewhere, 
and  had  sent  it  to  the  Tribune  as  a  piece  of  news.  He  had 
news  of  a  grander  poem  in  '  Faust  *  than  English-speaking 
men  had  yet  known  in  it,  and  it  was  to  tell  that  news  that  he 
made  his  supremely  good  translation."^^ 

Moreover,  the  translation  of  "  Faust "  is  written  in  Bayard 
Taylor's  second  manner,  which  is  even  less  poetical  than  his 
first  manner.^^  Taylor's  first  manner,  which  he  affected  for 
a  considerable  period,  largely  because  it  enabled  him  to  sail 
the  seas  of  literature  prosperously  from  the  start,^®  was  char- 
acterized by  an  immature  exuberance  of  rhetoric,***  which  might 
have  been  made  to  serve  more  artistic  ends,  had  Taylor  enjoyed 
the  advantage  of  intelligent  criticism.  Intelligent  criticism, 
however,  came  to  Taylor  sparsely,  partly  because  the  critics 
were  not  inclined  to  give  it  to  him,  partly  because  he  himself 
did  not  wish  it.  Much  literary  criticism  in  America,  at  the 
time  Taylor  put  his  earliest  volumes  of  poetry  upon  the  market, 
savored  of  opera  bouffe.^^     Frequently  it  was  recklessly  en- 

"  Cf.  New  York  Evening  Post,  December  20,  1878. 

^  Cf.  Nation,  v.  39,  p.  401  :  "  In  Bayard  Taylor's  growth,  however,  there 
seem  to  have  been  two  lives,  so  marked  was  the  change  in  his  nature;  and 
he  has,  in  fact,  left  two  reputations  in  consequence — one  widespread  and 
established,  the  other  narrower  in  its  range  and  of  doubtful  permanence." 

'"  Cf.  Athenaeum,  no.  2670,  p.  853  :  "  As  is  not  uncommon  in  the  case 
of  clever  citizens  of  the  United  States,  he  (i.  e.,  Taylor)  considered  him- 
self fitted  for  the  vocation  of  a  poet.  There  are  few  villages  in  the 
States  which  do  not  contain  several  young  men  and  women  who  are 
ranked  among  poets  because  they  are  assiduous  in  writing  verses.  More 
fortunate  than  thousands  of  his  countrymen  and  countrywomen,  this  aspirant 
for  fame  saw  his  verses  in  print,  an  easy  thing  in  a  land  abounding  in 
newspapers  filled  with  gratuitous  contributions,  but  he  attained  the  rare 
distinction  of  being  paid  for  his  early  rhymes.  They  appeared  in  the 
New  York  Mirror  and  Graham's  Magazine,  and  yielded  their  author  forty 
dollars." 

"Cf.  Critic,  V.  2,  p.  169:  "He  (t.  e.,  Taylor)  delighted  in  the  ornate, 
the  sonorous,  the  rhetorical." 

*^As  a  specimen  of  the  informality  of  the  literary  comment  of  that  time, 
we  submit  a  paragraph  from  a  reputable  magazine  (Cf.  Graham's  Maga- 
zine, December,  1848,  Editor's  Table,  p.  366):  "A  life-like  portrait  of 
our  friend  and  co-laborer,  J.  B.  Taylor,  graces  this  number  of  the 
Magazine.  We  know  our  readers — our  fair  ones  especially — will  admire 
him ;  and  we  would  remark,  en  passant,  for  their  information  that  well- 


85 

comiastic  or  unconvincingly  vituperative.  Toward  Taylor  it 
was  so  f riendly*^  that  it  became  common  to  speak  of  his  "  good 
luck."*^ 

The  plaudits  of  the  critics  were  agreeable  to  Taylor.  He 
had  a  life-long  aversion  to  harsh  or  corrective  criticism.  I 
presume  that  is  why  men  like  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Whittier, 
Mr.  Stedman  and  Mr.  Howells,  who  could  have  given  him 

looking  (sic)  as  he  unquestionably  is,  his  merits  in  this  particular  are 
fully  equalled  by  his  good  qualities  of  head  and  heart." 

Cf.  also  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes,  ed,  of  1865,  p.  227;  "John  Godfrey" 
is  speaking  of  Leonora's  Dream,  and  Other  Poems,  but  we  may  assume, 
I  think,  that  it  is  really  Bayard  Taylor  speaking  of  Ximena,  and  Other 
Poems,  He  says :  "  All  these  notices  I  cut  out  and  carefully  preserved 
in  a  separate  pocket  of  my  portfolio.  I  have  them  still.  The  other  day, 
as  I  took  them  out  and  read  them  over  with  an  objective  scrutiny  in 
which  no  shadow  of  my  former  interest  remained,  I  was  struck  with  the 
vague,  mechanical  stamp  by  which  they  are  all  characterized.  I  sought 
in  vain  for  a  single  line  which  showed  the  discrimination  of  an  en- 
lightened critic.  The  fact  is,  we  had  no  criticism,  worthy  of  the  name, 
at  that  time.  Our  literature  was  tenderly  petted,  and  its  diffuse,  super- 
ficial sentiment  was  perhaps  even  more  admired  than  its  first  attempts 
at  a  profounder  study  of  its  own  appropriate  themes  and  a  noble  asser- 
tion of  its  autonomy.  That  brief  interregnum  in  England,  during  which 
such  writers  as  Moir,  B.  Simmons,  T.  K.  Hervey,  and  Alaric  A.  Watts 
enjoyed  a  delusive  popularity,  had  its  counterpart  on  our  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  All  our  gentle,  languishing  echoes  found  spell-bound  listeners, 
whom  no  one — with,  perhaps,  the  single  exception  of  Poe — had  the  will 
to  disenchant." 

*^Thus  the  Albion  (November  8,  1851)  makes  Taylor  in  a  breath  equal 
to  Shelley  and  superior  to  Keats  and  Tennyson.  A  reviewer  in  the 
Literary  World  (January  13,  1849),  who  granted  that  "Mr.  Taylor's  vol- 
ume ...  is  an  advance  upon  his  previous  publication "  and  conceded 
that  "  much  is  to  be  allowed  to  youthful  enthusiasm,  in  an  author  who 
always  preserves  delicacy  and  taste,  and  who  must  soon  learn  to  be  the 
severest  judge  of  his  own  productions,"  said  furthermore  that  "  all  is  not 
poetry  which  goes  trippingly "  and  that  he  "  could  have  wished  indeed 
something  of  restraint  in  the  rhetoric."  This  discordant  note  in  the 
general  chorus  of  Taylor's  praise,  was  more  or  less  drowned  out  by  Edgar 
Allan  Poe's  indignant  trumpetings  of  remonstrance.  (Cf.  Poe,  Literati, 
p.  207.)  No  one  seems  to  have  perceived  that  the  great  poet  rushed  to 
Taylor's  defense  not  because  he  loved  Taylor  and  his  poetry  more  but 
because  he  loved  the  reviewer  of  the  Literary  World  considerably  less. 

*^  Cf .  N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1863:  "He  (i.  e.,  Taylor)  has 
won  the  smiles  of  enterprising  publishers,  if  not  the  plaudits  of  approving 
readers,  and  in  no  way  has  he  suffered  from  the  embarrassments  of  author- 
ship, excepting,  perhaps,  those  which  follow  an  unusual  run  of  good  luck." 
Cf.  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  v.  18,  p.  13:  "The  rise  of  Mr.  Bayard 


86 

helpful  criticism,  never  (as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  their 
printed  letters  to  him)  attempted  to  prune  his  talent.  They 
sent  him  pleasant  letters  of  congratulation  on  the  appearance 
of  his  various  works,  and,  as  Professor  Woodberry  says,  *'he 
hoarded  up  his  commendations  from  *the  poets,'  and  over- 
valued their  meaning."**  James  T.  Fields  once  ventured  to 
find  some  lines  in  "  Notus  Ignoto  "  unpoetical.  The  futility  of 
his  or  any  similar  effort  at  criticism  is  patent  from  Taylor's 
reply,  which  runs  in  part :  "  Like  similar  things  of  Shelley,  it 
may  be  read  here  and  there  with  a  wrong  accent,  and  I  suspect 
this  is  just  what  you  have  done.  Of  all  your  criticisms  I  only 
feel  that  what  you  say  of  the  last  two  lines  of  the  first  stanza 
is  partly  true.  Those  lines  are  rather  grave  and  heavy  for  the 
airy,  spiritual  movement  of  the  poem.  The  other  lines  which 
you  call  '  especially  bad,'  are  not  only  good  but  some  of  them 
especially  good,  and  I  don't  know  that  I  can  change  one  of 
them."*« 

Of  Taylor's  better  work  in  his  first  manner,  the  "  Bedouin 
Song  "  may  fairly  serve  as  an  example.  It  fails  to  carry  the 
conviction  of  a  genuine  love  lyric,  because,  like  Heine's  "  Er- 
klarung,"*^  although  in  less  degree,  it  "  doth  protest  too  much  " 
and  too  loudly;  the  "superb  refrain"*^  is  prejudicial  to  the 

Taylor  in  the  literary  world  has  been  exceedingly  rapid.  Five  years  ago 
he  was  altogether  unknown ;  now  he  figures  in  the  common-place  books  of 
selected  poetry,  and  disputes  with  Halleck  and  Willis  the  first  place  in 
lyrical  composition  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  .  .  ,  Mr,  Bayard 
Taylor  has  been  uniformly  lucky  in  his  literary  enterprises.  We  say 
lucky  because  while  we  are  ready  to  accord  him  all  rightful  praise  (and 
that  warmly)  we  are  yet  of  the  opinion  that  his  rise  has  not  been  alto- 
gether legitimate  and  that  there  has  been  an  uncommon  degree  of  humbug 
in  the  manner  of  achieving  it." 

**  Cf.  Nation,  v.  39,  p.  401.  Cf.  Trent,  History  of  American  Literature, 
p.  463 :  "  Lowell  pronounced  the  latter  (t.  e..  Picture  of  St.  John)  to 
be  the  most  finished  and  sustained  American  poem,  with  the  exception  of 
Longfellow's  Golden  Legend.  This  judgment  is  typical  of  the  over- 
enthusiastic  reception  Taylor's  kind  friends,  who  loved  the  man  and 
knew  his  aspirations,  constantly  accorded  to  his  work  in  verse." 

"  Cf.  Life  and  Letters,  p.  505. 

*"  Cf.  Heine's  S'dmtliche  Werke,  herausgegeben  von  Prof.  Dr.  Ernst 
Elster,  V.  I,  p.  170. 

"Mr.  Stedman  (Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  81)  says,  speaking  of  the 
Bedouin  Song,  "  the  refrain  is  superb."  Later  when  he  came  to  revise 
his  article  on  Taylor  (Poets  of  America)  he  eliminated  this  statement. 


87 

illusion  of  sincerity,  it  degenerates  readily  into  a  jingle.  The 
poem,  in  short,  betrays  the  weakness  of  Taylor's  first  manner. 
It  is  unduly  rhetorical.  But  if  rhetoric  was  the  weakness  of 
Taylor's  first  manner,  it  was  also  its  strength,  a  fact  of  which 
Taylor  himself  was  apparently  aware.  When  he  sat  once 
incognito  in  judgment  upon  his  writings,  he  wrote :  "  His  (i.  e., 
Taylor's)  rhetoric  is  at  the  same  time  his  strength  and  his 
weakness,  for  it  has  often  led  him  away  from  the  true  sub- 
stance of  poetry."*®  Rhetoric  was  Taylor's  strength  because 
it  helped  cover  up  his  paucity  of  thought,*®  because  it  gave  a 
swing  and  dash  to  his  work  that  frequently  created  the  illusion 
of  poetry,  because  it  helped  disguise  the  fact  from  not-too- 
discerning  eyes  that  Taylor's  verses  lack  "  spontaneity.  His 
poetry  is  all  intended.  It  is  carefully  built  up  by  the  intellect. 
The  reader  searches  in  vain  for  an  escape  from  the  intellectual ; 
Taylor  never  gives  the  rein  to  the  spirit.  The  reader  is  sur- 
prised by  no  sudden  glories  of  the  imagination,  for  Taylor 
never  seems  to  look  forth  from  those  *  magic  casements,  open- 
ing on  the  foam  of  perilous  seas  in  Faery  lands  forlorn ! '  "'^^ 

Bayard  Taylor's  second  manner  is  usually  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  his  German  studies."^  His  critics  call  the  work 
of  his  second  period  metaphysical.*^^    Taylor  himself  preferred 

«  Cf.  Echo  Club,  p.  126. 

*'  Cf.  Trent,  History  of  American  Literature,  p.  463 :  "  Furthermore,  for 
the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life  (».  e.,  while  translating  Faust)  he 
was  under  no  necessity  to  seek  for  the  intellectual  and  emotional  pro- 
fundity which  he  knew  must  characterize  a  great  poem,  but  which  he  could 
never  attain.  In  other  words,  that  support  of  a  greater  mind  which 
Arnold  thought  Shelley  needed.  Bayard  Taylor  much  more  surely  needed 
and  found  in  Goethe." 

"  Cf.  Smyth,  Bayard  Taylor,  p.  268. 

"  Cf.  Nation,  v.  39,  p.  401 :  "  In  these  last  years,  too,  there  was  an  expan- 
sion of  his  intellectual  nature  and  a  sharpening  of  his  artistic  perception,  due 
in  large  measure  to  his  study  of  Goethe,  who  overmastered  his  mind  and 
determined  the  character  of  the  latest  products  of  his  genius." 

•"  Cf.  Scribner's  Monthly,  v.  19,  p.  81  :  "  Of  late  years,  in  his  desire  to 
convey  his  deeper,  more  intellectual  thought  and  conviction,  he  frequently 
became  involved,  and  a  metaphysical  vagueness  was  apparent  even  in  his 
lyrics." 

Cf.  also  North  American  Review,  v.  104,  p.  294,  review  of  Picture  of 
St,  John  by  Lowell :  "  We  could  spare  without  regret  a  number  of  stanzas 
in  which  Mr.  Taylor  philosophizes,  for  the  metaphysical  is  certainly  not  his 


88 

to  call  it  psychological.^^  At  any  rate,  it  involved  the  for- 
swearing of  rhetoric  and  the  endeavor  to  pursue  "  the  true 
substance  of  poetry."  Robbed  of  their  rhetoric,  Taylor's  verses 
appeared  more  and  more  unpoetic.  It  is  to  this  period  that  his 
"  Faust  "-translation  belongs. 

In  a  certain  sense  Bayard  Taylor's  "  Faust "  is  not  English. 
In  a  certain  sense  it  is  not  Goethe.  Taylor  has  given  us  the 
form  of  "  Faust "  with  photographic  fidelity  at  times.^*  But 
he  has  Latinized,  sophisticated,  diluted,  padded,  and  stripped  oif 
poetry^^  until  all  vital  semblance  of  the  original  has  been  lost. 
The  translation  inspires  the  reader  with  an  unqualified  admi- 

strongest  point.  He  is  happiest  when  he  looks  about  him  and  gathers 
into  sheaves  of  verse  the  harvest  of  his  eye.  When  he  undertakes  to  ex- 
pound the  laws  of  the  mind,  he  becomes  misty,  and  therefore  tedious.  The 
artist,  when  he  volunteers  to  be  his  own  lawyer  in  these  matters,  hath  a 
fool  to  his  client." 

"  Cf .  Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  p.  159:  "Was  jene  raetaphysisch  nannten, 
bezeichnete  Taylor  jedoch  als  psychologisch." 

"  Cf.  Barrett  Wendell,  Literary  History  of  America,  p.  458 :  "  Whatever 
the  positive  value  of  his  translation,  he  achieved  one  rare  practical  result. 
By  simply  comparing  his  work  with  Goethe's  original,  persons  who  know 
very  little  German  can  feel  the  power  arid  the  beauty  of  Goethe's  style, 
as  well  as  of  his  meaning."  Cf,  also  Westminster  Review,  1871,  p.  568 : 
"  Mr.  Taylor's  version  is  a  photograph,  with  the  unavoidable  faults  of  a 
photograph." 

"  Cf.  Springfield  Republican,  January  2,  1871 :  "  For  translating  poems, 
it  is  first  needful  that  one  should  be  a  poet.  Mr.  Taylor  is  one,  nominally, 
but  not  in  reality, — his  mind  has  the  hard  prosaic  character,  very  similar 
to  one  side  of  Goethe's — but  on  the  other  side,  the  great  German  was  a 
lofty  and  inspired  poet.  Inspiration  is  exactly  what  Mr.  Taylor  lacks, 
and,  consequently,  he  can  never  inspire  his  readers.  His  version  even 
when  mechanically  exact,  and  indeed  felicitous  in  its  choice  of  words, 
as  it  often  is,  lacks  the  nameless  charm  that  we  find  in  the  translations 
of  Shelley  and  Longfellow  and  Coleridge,  from  the  same  language.  None 
of  these  were  {sic)  so  familiar  with  German  as  Mr.  Taylor  is,  but  they 
all  had,  each  in  his  way,  'the  vision  and  the  faculty  divine,'  which  may 
mislead  a  translator  but  is  sure  to  please  his  readers." 

Cf.  St,  Louis  Republican,  review  of  Faust:  "If  we  miss  much  of 
the  music  of  the  original  and  much  of  the  something  which  has  no  name, 
but  is  the  exclusive  property  of  the  high  priests  of  poetry,  who  wed  'per- 
fect music  unto  noble  words '  we  are  not  surprised.  Translations — the 
French  very  aptly  call  them  traductions — are  after  all  translations,  and  Mr. 
Taylor  might  have  added  to  the  motto  on  his  title  page : 

Wer  den  Dichter  will  verstehen. 
Muss  des  Dichter  (sic)  Sprache  lernen." 


89 

ration  for  the  patience,  zeal  and  industry  of  Bayard  Taylor, 
but  it  affords  him  little  pleasure,  nor  does  it  perform  that 
higher  office  of  a  good  translation,  so  potently  to  suggest  the 
charm  of  the  original  as  to  win  readers  for  Goethe  in  the 
German.*^® 

In  short,  it  meets  no  one  of  the  three  demands,  which  may 
reasonably  be  made  upon  it  by  the  person  for  whom  the  trans- 
lation was  obviously  intended — the  English-speaking  person  of 
culture  who  knows  no  German  but  would  still  make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  "Faust."  I  hold  therefore  that  it  is  an  inade- 
quate translation.  Like  a  certain  English  reviewer  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  understand  how  it  has  "  usurped  the  position  of  stan- 
dard."**^ Nor  do  I  comprehend,  I  confess,  the  esteem,  both 
for  poetic  and  general  excellence,  in  which  this  translation  is 
held  by  certain  eminent  German  authorities.**^ 

"  Cf.  Goethe,  Maximen  und  Reflexionen,  III :  "  Uebersetzer  sind  als 
geschaftige  Kuppler  anzusehen,  die  uns  eine  halbverschleierte  Schone  als 
hochst  liebenswiirdig  anpreisen ;  sie  erregen  eine  unwiderstehliche  Neigung 
nach  dem  Original.'* 

"  Cf.  Saturday  Review,  v.  67,  p.  577 :  "  He  (t.  e,,  Birds)  does  not  com- 
pare disadvantageously  with  the  late  Mr.  Bayard  Taylor,  who  has  (we 
never  quite  knew  how)  apparently  attained  or  usurped  the  position  of 
standard." 

•"Cf.  Herrig's  Archiv.  v.  99,  p.  437,  review  of  McLintock's  Faust  by 
Richard  M.  Meyer. 

Cf.  Herrig's  Archiv,  v.  91,  p.  284,  review  of  Sabatier's  Faust  by  Arn. 
Krause. 

Cf.  Goethe- J ahrbuch,  v.  2,  p.  439,  Zu  einer  Stelle  in  Faust,  in  which 
article  G.  v.  Loeper  speaks  of  the  "  nicht  genug  zu  riihmenden  Faust-Ueber- 
tragung  "  of  Bayard  Taylor. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  books,  journals  and  reviews  have  been  read 
in  preparing  this  dissertation. 

Works  of  Bayard  Taylor^ 

At  Home  and  Abroad,    I,  New  York,  i860. 

At  Home  and  Abroad,  II,  New  York,  1878. 

Beauty  and  the  Beast,  New  York,  1881. 

By- Ways  of  Europe,  New  York,  1869. 

Central  Africa,  New  York,  1863. 

Echo  Club,  Boston,  1876. 

Eldorado,  New  York,  1862. 

Essays  and  Notes,  New  York,  1880. 

Faust,    I,  Boston,  1876. 

Faust,  II,  Boston,  1879. 

Faust,  Kennett  Edition,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1879. 

Faust,  Boston  and  New  York,  copyright  1870  and  1898. 

Hannah  Thurston,  New  York,  1879. 

John  Godfrey's  Fortunes,  New  York,  1865. 

Joseph  and  his  Friend,  New  York,  1855. 

National  Ode,  Boston,  1876. 

Northern  Travel,  New  York,  1862. 

School  History  of  Germany,  New  York,  1882. 

Studies  in  German  Literature,  New  York,  1879. 

The  Dramatic  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor  (The  Prophet,  The 
Masque  of  the  Gods,  Prince  Deukalion),  Boston, 
1880. 

The  Golden  Wedding,  a  Masque,  printed  privately,  Philadel- 
phia, 1868. 

The  Lands  of  the  Saracen,  New  York,  1865. 

*  First  editions  of  many  of  Taylor's  works  will  be  found  in  the  library 
of  Cornell  University,  including  a  very  rare  if  not  unique  example  of 
Ximena  and  a  copy  of  Poems  of  the  Orient  with  interesting  marginal  notes 
by  the  author. 

90 


91 

The  Picture  of  St.  John,  Boston,  1866. 

The  Poems  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Boston,  1866. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Boston,  1902. 

The  Story  of  Kennett,  New  York,  1866. 

Travels  in  Greece  and  Russia,  New  York,  1859. 

Views  Afoot,  New  York,  1859. 

Ximena,  Philadelphia,  1844. 

Biographies 

Aus  Zwei  Weltteilen,  Stuttgart  und  Leipzig,  1905,  by  Marie 
Hansen-Taylor. 

Bayard  Taylor,  Boston  and  New  York,  1896,  by  A.  H.  Smyth. 

Life  and  Letters  of  Bayard  Taylor,  2  vols.,  Boston,  1885,  by 
Marie  Hansen-Taylor  and  Horace  Scudder. 

Life,  Travels,  and  Literary  Career  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Boston, 
1879,  by  R.  H.  Conwell. 

On  Two  Continents,  New  York,  1905,  by  Marie  Hansen- 
Taylor  with  the  cooperation  of  Lilian  Bayard  Taylor 
Kiliani. 

Briefer  Biographies,  Biographical  Notes,  Critical 
Estimates  and  the  Like 

Academy,  v.  13,  p.  461. 
Academy,  v.  15,  p.  188. 
Academy,  "Faust"  translations:  a  very  small  point,  v.  48,  p. 

568,  by  R.  McLintock. 
American  and  British  Authors,  Columbus,  copyright  1896,  pp. 

150-157,  by  Frank  V.  Irish. 
American  Authors,  Atlanta,   1902,  pp.  302-307,  by  Mildred 

Rutherford. 
American  Literary  Masters,  Boston  and  New  York,  1906,  pp. 

401-414,  by  Leon  H.  Vincent. 
American  Literature,  New  York,  1903,  pp.  384-394,  by  J.  W. 

Abernethy. 
American  Literature,  New  York,  1898,  pp.  192-194,  by  Kath- 
arine L.  Bates. 
American  Literature — a  Laboratory  Method,  Philadelphia,  1901, 

pp.  43,  49,  by  H.  L.  Mason. 


92 

American  Literature,  Chicago,  1901,  pp.  245-247,  by  Alphonso 

G.  Newcomer. 
American  Literature,  New  York  and  London,  1889,  pp.  246- 

248,  by  Charles  F.  Richardson. 
American  Literature  in  the  Colonial  and  National   Periods, 

Boston,  1902,  pp.  224-238,  by  Lorenzo  Sears. 
American  Literature,  Boston  and  New  York,  1899,  pp.  87-88, 

by  Edwin  P.  Whipple. 
American  Song,  New  York  and  London,  1894,  pp.  116-121, 

by  Arthur  B.  Simonds. 
Appleton's  Journal,  v.  12,  p.  683. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2670,  p.  853. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2680,  p.  303. 
Atlantic,  Reminiscences  of  Bayard  Taylor,  v.  43,  p.  242,  by 

R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Atlantic,  Poem,  v.  43,  p.  337,  by  J.  G.  Whittier. 
Atlantic,  On  the  Translation  of  Faust,  v.  66,  p.  733,  by  W.  P. 

Andrews. 
Author's  Birthdays,  Syracuse,  1899,  pp.  9-56,  by  C.  W.  Bardeen. 
Aus  dem  amerikanischen  Dichterwald,  Leipzig,  1881,  pp.  258- 

288,  by  Dr.  Rudolf  Doehn. 
Beitrage  zur  amerikanischen  Litteratur-  und  Kulturgeschichte, 

Stuttgart,  1898,  pp.  410-415,  by  E.  P.  Evans. 
Bookbuyer,.  Our  Literary  Diplomats,  v.  21,  p.  45. 
Brief  History  of  English  and  American  Literature,  New  York, 

copyright  1897,  pp.  538-541,  by  Henry  A.  Beers. 
Bryant  and  His  Friends,  New  York,  1886,  pp.  347-375»  by 

J.  G.  Wilson. 
Builders  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  1893,  pp.  275-279, 

by  F.  H.  Underwood. 
Catholic  World,  v.  29,  p.  iii,  by  J.  V.  O'Connor. 
Century,  With  Perry  in  Japan,  v.  70,  p.  349. 
Chamber's   Cyclopaedia  of  English   Literature,   Philadelphia, 

1904,  V.  3,  pp.  818-820. 
Children's  Stories  in  American  Literature,  New  York,  1896,  v. 

2,  pp.  84-105,  by  Henrietta  C.  Wright. 
Critic,  V.  16,  p.  109. 


93 

Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature,  New  York,   1855,  pp. 

715-717,  by  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck. 
Detroit  Free  Press,  May  22,  1887,  by  Richard  S.  Willis. 
English   Literature,  New  York,    1879,  p.    182,  by   Stopford 

Brooke. 
Essays  on  German  Literature,  English  translations  of  Goethe, 

New  York,  1898,  pp.  1 19-128,  by  H.  H.  Boyesen. 
Four  Famous  American  Writers,  New  York,  Chicago  and 

Boston,   copyright    1899,   pp.    197-256,   by   Sherwin 

Cody. 
Four-Track  News,  Poem,  July,  1904,  p.  21,  by  Eben  Rexford 
Geschichte  der  englischen  Litteratur,  Leipzig,  1897,  pp.  550- 

551,  by  Eduard  Engel. 
Geschichte  der  Litteratur  Nordamerikas,  Leipzig,  sine  dato,  pp 

27-29,  by  Eduard  Engel. 
Geschichte  der  nordamerikanischen  Litteratur,  Leipzig,  1868 

pp.  66,  123,  by  Dr.  K.  Brunnemann. 
Geschichte  der  nordamerikanischen  Litteratur,  Berlin,  1891,  v 

I J  PP-  386-407,  by  Karl  Knortz, 
Guardian,  December  24,  1878,  p.  1786. 
Hand-Book  of  American  Literature,  Philadelphia,   1856?,  p 

103,  by  Joseph  Gostwick. 
Hand-Book  of  English  Literature,  Boston,  1874,  pp.  518-521 

by  F.  H.  Underwood. 
Harper's  Magazine,  Editor's  Easy  Chair,  v.  57,  p.  143. 
Harper's  Magazine,  Editor's  Easy  Chair,  v.  58,  p.  621. 
Harper's  Magazine,  May,  1894,  pp.  817-820. 
Harper's  Magazine,  First  Century  of  the  Republic,  v.  52,  p. 

519,  by  Edwin  P.  Whipple. 
Harper's  Weekly,  January  11,  1879,  PP-  22,  23. 
History  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  1897,  pp.  351-360,  by 

Fred  Lewis  Pattee. 
History  of  American  Literature,  New  York,  1903,  pp.  463-472, 

by  W.  P.  Trent. 
History  of  American  Verse,  Chicago,  1901,  pp.  233-237,  by 

James  L.  Onderdonk. 
History  of  Literature  in  America,  New  York,  1904,  pp.  360- 

361,  by  Barrett  Wendell  and  Chester  N.  Greenough. 


94 

Initial  Studies  in  American  Letters,  New  York,  1892,  pp.  170- 

173,  by  Henry  A.  Beers. 
Introduction  to  American  Literature,  New  York,  1900,  pp.  287- 

292,  by  Henry  S.  Pancoast. 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  American  Literature,  New  York 

and    Chicago,    1902,    pp.    338-340,    by    William    C. 

Lawton. 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  American  Literature,  New  York, 

Cincinnati,  Chicago,  copyright  1896,  pp.  224,  225,  by 

Brander  Matthews. 
Lippincott,  August,  1879,  p.  209,  by  H.  H.  Boyesen. 
Literary  Friends  and  Acquaintance,  New  York  and  London, 

1900,  pp.  3-9,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Literary  History  of  America,  New  York,  1900,  pp.  455-458,  by 

Barrett  Wendell. 
Literary  World,  August  18,  1849,  P-  I34- 
Literary  World,  September  29,  1849,  P-  280. 
Literary  World,  March  20,  1852,  p.  207. 
Literary  World,  May  29,  1852,  p.  380. 
Literary  World,  May  7,  1853,  p.  380. 
Literary  World,  August  26,  1853,  p.  584. 
Literary  World,  January  4,  1879,  P-  3- 
Literary  World,  January  4,  1879,  P-  8- 
Literary  World,  January  4,  1879,  P-  12. 
Literary  World,  January  18,  1879,  P-  3^- 
Literary  World,  July  19,  1879,  P-  233. 
Literary  World,  March  29,  1879,  p.  no. 
Literary  World,  October  8,  1881,  p.  354. 
Literary  World,  London,  Poem,  March  14,  1879,  p.  173,  by 

J.  G.  Whittier. 
London  Times,  March  17,  1879. 

Magazine  of  American  History,  v.  29,  p.  136,  by  N.  G.  Pond. 
Manual  of  American  Literature,  Philadelphia,  1873,  pp.  456- 

457,  by  John  S.  Hart. 
Modern  Language  Notes,  Faust-interpretations,  v.  15,  no.  3, 

col.  164,  by  J.  H.  Senger. 
Munsey,  v.  18,  p.  594,  by  Theodore  Dreiser. 
Nation,  v.  2^,  pp.  124,  400. 


95 

National  Magazine,  April,  1853. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  Bayard  Taylor  and  his  Work,  De- 
cember 20,  1878. 
New  York  Independent,  December  26,  1878,  pp.  10,  17. 
New  York  Sun,  editorial,  December  20,  1878. 
New  York  Times,  December  20,  1878. 
New  York  Tribune,  Bayard  Taylor  as  a  Club  Man,  December 

20,  1878,  by  A.  B.  Macdonough. 
New  York  Tribune,  Account  of  Bayard  Taylor's  funeral  in 

Berlin,  December  23,  1878. 
New  York  Tribune,  Bayard  Taylor :  His  Last  Days,  January 

7,  1879,  by  G.  W.  Smalley. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  24,  1878,  by  J.  T.  Fields. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1878,  by  E.  C.  Stedman. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1878,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1878,  by  C.  T.  Congdon. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1878,  editorial. 
New  York  Tribune,  January  7,  1879,  by  Paul  H.  Hayne. 
North  American  Review,  v.  128,  p.  508,  by  O.  B.  Frothingham. 
Outline  Sketch  of  American  Literature,  New  York,  1887,  pp. 

224-227,  by  Henry  A.  Beers. 
Packard's  Monthly,  November,  1869,  p.  321,  by  Howard  Glyn- 

don,  pseudonym  of  Laura  C.  Redden. 
Parnassus  in  Pillory,  New  York,  1851,  pp.  12,  62,  by  Motley 

Manners,  Esquire,  pseudonym  of  A.  J.  H.  Duganne. 
Pennsylvania  Monthly,  v.  10,  p.  2. 
Pen  Pictures  of  Modern  Authors,  New  York,  without  date  or 

copyright,  pp.  178-201,  W.  S.  Walsh. 
Personal  Sketches  of  Recent  Authors,  Chicago,  1898,  pp.  316- 

335,  by  Hattie  Tyng  Griswold. 
Philadelphia  Magazines  and  their  Contributors,  Philadelphia, 

1892,  pp.  20,  207,  224,  236,  by  A.  H.  Smyth. 
Philosophy  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  1891,  p.  (£,  by 

Greenough  White. 
Poet-Lore,  A  Faust  Problem :  What  was  the  Homunculus  ?  v. 

13,  p.  269. 
Poets'  Homes,  Boston,  copyright  1877,  pp.  101-118,  by  R.  H. 

Stoddard  and  others. 


96 

Poets  of  America,  Boston  and  New  York,  1892,  pp.  396-434, 

by  E.  C.  Stedman. 
Poets  and  Poetry  of  America,  Philadelphia,  1852,  pp.  51 1-5 17, 

by  Rufus  W.  Griswold. 
Potter's  American  Monthly,  v.  12,  p.  118,  by  A.  G.  Feather. 
Primer  of  American  Literature,  New  York,  copyright  1880,  p. 

130?  by  Eugene  Lawrence. 
Primer  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago, 

copyright  1896,  pp.  80-81,  by  C.  F.  Richardson. 
Public  Opinion,  London,  July  7,  1866,  p.  25. 
Reader's  History  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  New  York, 

Chicago,  copyright  1903,  pp.  264,  305-306,  by  T.  W. 

Higginson  and  H.  W.  Boynton. 
Recollections,  Personal  and  Literary,  New  York,   1903,  pp. 

50-68,  244-261,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,  New  York,   1868,  p.  326,  by 

Horace  Greeley. 
Reminiscences  of  a  Journalist,  Boston,  1880,  by  C.  T.  Congdon. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  46,  p.  811. 
Scribner,  Bayard  Taylor:  His  Poetry  and  Literary  Career,  v. 

19,  pp.  81  ff.,  266  ff.,  by  E.  C.  Stedman. 
Shaw's  New  History  of  English  Literature,  New  York  and 

Chicago,  1884,  pp.  452-453,  by  T.  J.  Backus. 
Short  History  of  American  Literature,  Boston,  1900,  pp.  262- 

265,  by  Walter  C.  Bronson. 
Spectator,  v.  51,  p.  1587. 
Studies  in  American  Literature,  New  York,  1898,  pp.  277-280, 

by  Charles  Noble. 
Studies  in  Poetry  and  Criticism,  London,  1905,  pp.  33,  58-60, 

by  J.  Churton  Collins. 
Tribute  to  Bayard  Taylor,  an  essay  and  poem,  Washington, 

1879,  by  Isaac  Edwards  Clarke. 
Uber  Land  und  Meer,  v.  40,  p.  570,  by  Udo  Brachvogel. 
Vanity  Fair,  February  18,  i860,  p.  124. 
Vanity  Fair,  February  25,  i860,  p.  133. 
Vanity  Fair,  March  23,  1861,  p.  143. 
Vanity  Fair,  March  30,  1861,  p.  153. 


97 

Reviews  of  Single  Books 


American  Legend 


Boston  Transcript,  July  30,  1850. 

Harper's  Magazine,  v.  i,  p.  573. 

Literary  World,  August  31,  1850,  p.  172. 

North  American  Review,  v.  71,  p.  514,  by  C.  C.  Felton. 

At  Home  and  Abroad 

Albion,  November  12,  1859,  p.  549. 

Albion,  January  25,  1862,  p.  45. 

Athenaeum,  no.  1675,  p.  738. 

National  Quarterly  Review,  June,  i860,  p.  254. 

Beauty  and  the  Beast 
Athenaeum,  no.  2336,  p.  145. 
Atlantic,  v.  29,  p.  751. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  45,  p.  299. 
Nation,  v.  14,  p.  409. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  33,  p.  677. 
Spectator,  v.  45,  p.  1084. 

Book  of  Romances,  Lyrics  and  Songs 

Albion,  November  8,  185 1,  p.  537. 

International  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  5,  p.  13,  by  G.  H.  Boker. 

Southern  Literary  Messenger,  v.  18,  p.  13. 

Westminster  Review,  April  i,  1852,  p.  669. 

Boys  of  Other  Countries 

Galaxy,  January,  1877,  p.  139. 
Literary  World,  January,  1902,  p.  10. 
Pennsylvania  Monthly,  v.  7,  p.  988. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  42,  p.  827. 

By-Ways  of  Europe 

Athenaeum,  no.  2166,  p.  600. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  39,  p.  I47- 
Nation,  v.  8,  p.  278. 
8 


98 

Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  13,  p.  630. 
Spectator,  v.  42,  p.  540. 

Central  Africa 
Albion,  October  14,  1854,  p.  489. 
Athenaeum,  no.  1404,  p.  1137. 
Knickerbocker,  October,  1854,  p.  411. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  October  7,  1854. 
Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  4,  p.  343. 
Spectator,  November  4,  1854,  p.  11 56. 

Colorado 
Athenaeum,  no.  2078,  p.  233. 
Nation,  v.  4,  p.  105. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  23,  p.  800. 

Cyclopaedia  of  Modern  Travel 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  45,  p.  301. 
Knickerbocker,  February,  1857,  p.  196. 
Nation,  v.  14,  p.  105. 
Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  8,  p.  656. 

Don  Carlos 
New  York  Evening  Post,  March  26,  1906,  by  J.  M.  Hart. 

Echo  Club 
Academy,  v.  4,  p.  66. 

Atlantic,  January,  1877,  p.  92,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Literary  World,  December  14,  1895,  p.  451. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  July  31,   1876. 
New  York  Independent,  August  10,  1876,  p.  11. 
Pennsylvania  Monthly,  v.  7,  p.  982. 

Egypt  and  Iceland. 
Academy,  v.  6,  p.  649,  by  Robert  Brown. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2464,  p.  80. 
Galaxy,  December,  1874,  p.  860. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  October  22,  1874. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  38,  p.  741. 
Spectator,  v,  48,  p.  1599. 


99 

Eldorado 
Athenaeum,  no.  1183,  p.  680. 

Graham's  Magazine,  v.  37,  p.  134,  by  E.  P.  Whipple. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  i,  p.  140. 

Household  Words,  June  29,  1850,  by  Charles  Dickens. 
International  Monthly,  v.  i,  p.  74,  by  J.  G.  Whittier. 
Literary  World,  May  4,  1850,  p.  437. 
Literary  World,  May  18,  1850,  p.  488. 
North  American  Review,  v.  75,  p.  2yy,  by  J.  D.  Whitney. 
Sartain's  Union  Magazine,  July,  1850,  p.  59,  by  J.  S.  Hart. 
Spectator,  June  i,  1850,  p.  520. 

Essays  and  Notes 
Academy,  v.  18,  p.  42. 
Lippincott,  October,   1880,  p.  519. 
Literary  World,  October  23,   1880,  p.  367. 
Literary  World,  London,  August  20,  1880,  p.  118. 
Nation,  v.  24,  p.  279. 
New  Englander,  v.  40,  p.  40,  by  Franklin  Carter. 

Faust 
Academy,  December  i,  1871,  p.  529,  by  Fr.  Hiiffer. 
Academy,  v.  31,  no.  769,  p.  79. 
Academy,  v.  48,  p.  568,  by  R.  McLintock. 
Aldine,  February,  1871,  p.  34. 

Aldine,  March,  1871,  pp.  40-41,  by  Charles  Carroll. 
Aldine,  January,  1872,  p.  28,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Archiv  fiir  Literaturgeschichte,  v.  12,  p.  154,  by  W.  v.  Bieder- 

mann. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2284,  p.  171. 

Atlantic,  February,  1871,  p.  258,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Atlantic,  July,  1871,  p.  124,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Atlantic,  v.  66,  p.  733,  by  W.  P.  Andrews. 
Berliner  Nachrichten,  no.  63,  March  15,  1872. 
Blatter  fiir  litterarische  Unterhaltung,  March,   1872,  p.   171, 

by  David  Asher. 
Blatter  fiir    litterarische    Unterhaltung,    May    17,    1876,    by 

David  Asher. 


100 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  May  ii,  1871. 

Cotemporary  Literature,  October,  1871,  p.  568. 

Comhill,  V.  26,  p.  279. 

Englische  IJbersetzungen  von  Goethes  Faust,  Halle,  1907,  pp. 
80-100,  by  Lina  Baumann. 

Essays  on  German  Literature,  New  York,  1898,  p.  119,  by 
H.  Boyesen. 

Galaxy,  March,  1871,  p.  464,  by  Professor  J.  M.  Hart. 

Galaxy,  June,  1871,  p.  891,  by  Professor  J.  M.  Hart. 

Gegenwart,  no.  12,  1872,  p.  187. 

Guardian,  January  31,  1872,  p.  147. 

Harper's  Magazine,  March,  187 1,  p.  623. 

Hamburger  Correspondenten,  January  10,  1872,  by  Dr.  C.  F. 
Liiders. 

Hamburger  Nachrichten,  no.  56,  March  6,  1872. 

Literary  World,  January  15,  1881,  p.  31. 

Literary  World,  London,  September     8,  1871,  p.  152. 

Literary  World,  London,  September  22,  1871,  p.  183. 

Literary  World,  London,  September  29,  1871,  p.  200. 

Literary  World,  London,  October  6,   1871,  p.  216. 

London  Nonconformist,  October  25,  1871. 

Manchester  (England)  Guardian,  November  15,  1871. 

Nation,  March  23,  1871,  p.  201,  by  J.  K.  Dennett. 

National  Quarterly  Review,  September,  1871,  p.  373. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  December   16,   1870. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  April  7,  1871. 

New  York  Independent,  March  9,  1871,  by  Rev.  W.  C.  Wil- 
kinson. 

New  York  Times,  December  2'j,  1870,  by  Mr.  Conant. 

New  York  Times,  May  11,  1871,  by  Mr.  Conant. 

New  York  Tribune,  December  30,   1870,  by  Mr.  Ripley. 

New  York  Tribune,  June  2,  1871,  by  Mr.  Ripley. 

New  York  World,  February  3,  1871,  by  Mr.  Macdonough. 

Philadelphia  Demokrat,  April  19,  1871. 

Philadelphia  Press,  March  7,  1871,  by  Dr.  R.  Shelton  Mac- 
kenzie. 

Saturday  Review,  July  22,  1871,  p.  126. 

Saturday  Review,  September  16,  1871,  p.  370. 


101 

Saturday  Review,  October  7,  1871,  p.  466. 
Scribner's  Magazine,  March,  1871,  p.  572. 
Spectator,  December  23,  1871,  p.  1575. 
Spectator,  December  30,  1871,  p.  1612. 
Springfield  Republican,  January  2,  1871. 
St.  Louis  Republican.^ 
Westminster  Review,  1871,  p.  568. 
Westminster  Review,  v.  125,  p.  313. 

Faust-Translations  Other  Than  Taylor's 

Only  such  reviews  are  here  mentioned  as  contain,  by  way  of  comparison, 
some  discussion  of  Taylor's  translation,  or,  in  one  or  two  cases,  of  the 
theory  of  poetic  translation. 

Anster:  New  York  Times,  no.  10876,  July,  1886. 

Anster:  Saturday  Review,  v.  18,  p.  422. 

Beta:  Saturday  Review,  v.  81,  p.  84. 

Birds:  Academy,  v.  36,  p.  48,  by  E.  D.  A.  Morshead. 

Birds :  Magazin  f iir  Litteratur  des  In-  und  Auslandes,  no.  47, 

p.  684,  by  Paul  Dobert. 
Birds:  Nation,  v.  49,  p.  299. 
Birds:  Saturday  Review,  v.  dy^  p.  577. 
Birds:  Westminster  Review,  v.  115,  p.  336. 
Blackie:  Fraser,  v.  10,  p.  88. 
Blackie:  Magazin  fiir  Litteratur  des  In-  und  Auslandes,  no. 

47,  p.  684,  by  Paul  Dobert. 
Blackie:  Nation,  v.  32,  p.  409. 
Blackie:  Saturday  Review,  v.  50,  p.  741. 
Blackie:  Westminster  Review,  v.  115,  p.  336. 
Bowen :  Guardian,  July  24,  1878,  p.  1044. 
Bowen:  Spectator,  v.  51,  p.  377. 
Brooks:  Harper's  Magazine,  v.  14,  p.  406. 
Gaudy:  Nation,  May  27,  1886,  p.  451. 
Claudy:  New  York  Times,  no.  10876,  July,  1886. 
Colquhoun:  Guardian,  March  26,  1879,  p.  434. 

'This  article  I  was  obliged  to  consult  in  a  scrap-book  of  Faust  reviews 
prepared  by  Mrs.  Bayard  Taylor,  and  now  preserved  in  the  library  of 
Cornell  University.  The  editors  of  the  Si.  Louis  Republican  were  not 
able  to  supply  the  missing  date,  since  their  journal  is  indexed  only  for 
more  recent  years. 


102 

Goethe's  Faust  in  England :  Gegenwart,  nos.  24,  25,  1874,  pp. 

Z7S-Z77^  394-395,  by  Hermann  Kindt. 
Gower:  London  Magazine,  v.  6,  p.  164. 
Hayward:  Edinburgh  Review,  v.  57,  p.  107. 
Hayward :  Harper's  Magazine,  v.  2,  p.  565. 
Huth :  Academy,  v.  36,  p.  48,  by  E.  D.  A.  Morshead. 
Kegan  Paul :  Saturday  Review,  March  22,  1873. 
Latham:  Athenaeum,  no.  3930,  p.  237. 
McLintock:   Deutsche  Litteraturzeitung,   1898,  p.   13,  by  G. 

Witkowski. 
McLintock:  Herrig's  A.  f.  d.  S.  d.  n.  S.,  v.  99,  p.  437,  by 

Richard  M.  Meyer. 
Martin :  Academy,  no.  722,  p.  157,  by  E.  D.  A.  Morshead. 
Martin:  Athenaeum,  no.  3057,  p.  712. 
Martin:  Nation,  v.  42,  p.  451. 
Martin :  New  York  Times,  no.  10876,  July,  1886. 
Martin:  Saturday  Review,  v.  19,  p.  478. 
Martin:  Saturday  Review,  v.  61,  p.  409. 
Poetical  Translation  of  Faust,  Blackwood,  v.  47,  p.  223. 
Sabatier:  Herrig's  A.  f.  d.  S.  d.  n.  S.,  v.  91,  p.  284,  by  Arn. 

Krause. 
Swanwick:  Saturday  Review,  v.  47,  p.  119. 
Syme:  Eraser,  v.  10,  p.  88. 
Webb:  Athenaeum,  no.  2786,  p.  393. 
Webb :  Magazin  f  iir  Litteratur  des  In-  und  Auslandes,  no.  47, 

p.  684,  by  Paul  Dobert. 
Webb:  Nation,  November  24,  1898,  p.  394. 
Webb:  Westminster  Review,  1881,  p.  622. 

Hannah  Thurston 
Atlantic,  v.  13,  p.  132,  by  M.  A.  Dodge. 
Century,  v.  26,  p.  363,  by  J.  H.  Morse. 
Literary  World,  v.  30,  p.  275. 
New  Englander,  v.  23,  p.  496,  by  J.  M.  Sturtevant. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  November  21,  1863. 
New  York  Independent,  November  26,  1863. 
New  York  Times,  November  26,  1863. 
New  York  Tribune,  November  21,  1863. 


103 

Saturday  Review,  v.  i6,  p.  708. 

Spectator,  November  28,  1863,  p.  2801. 

Works  of  Orestes  A.  Brownson,  Detroit,  1885,  v.  10,  p.  502. 

Home  Pastorals,  Ballads,  and  Lyrics 
Academy,  v.  9,  p.  95. 

Atlantic,  v.  37,  p.  108,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Atlantic,  v.  49,  p.  131,  by  H.  E.  Scudder. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  64,  p.  313. 
Literary  World,  November  5,  1881,  p.  397. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  40,  p.  822. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  41,  p.  155. 

India,  China,  and  Japan 
Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  6,  p.  551. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  33,  p.  130. 

John  Godfrey's  Fortunes 
Boston  Review,  v.  5,  p.  162. 

National  Quarterly  Review,  December,  1864,  p.  175. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  November  28,  1864. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  31,  1864. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  19,  p.  113. 

Joseph  and  His  Friend 
Athenaeum,  no.  2258,  p.  140. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  42,  p.  461. 
Lippincott,  March,  1871,  p.  341. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  20,  1870. 
Public  Opinion,  London,  February  25,  1871,  p.  232. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  31,  p.  126. 

Lands  of  the  Saracen 
Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  5,  p.  109. 

Lars 
Academy,  v.  4,  p.  283,  by  G.  A.  Simcox. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2379,  p.  689. 
Atlantic,  v.  31,  p.  622, 


104 


Eclectic,  May,  1873,  p.  635. 

Galaxy,  June,  1873,  p.  855. 

Harper's  Magazine,  v.  47,  p.  130. 

Lippincott,  June,  1873,  p.  725. 

Nation,  v.  16,  p.  321. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  April  4,  1873. 

New  York  Independent,  April  10,  1873,  p.  459. 

New  York  Tribune,  March  6,  1873. 

Life  and  Letters 
Academy,  v.  26,  p.  299,  by  Walter  Lewin. 
Andover  Review,  v.  2,  p.  548,  by  P.  H.  Hayne. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2977,  p.  619. 
Atlantic,  v.  54,  p.  562,  by  J.  R.  G.  Hassard. 
Critic,  V.  2,  p.  169,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Dial,  V.  5,  p.  125,  by  Horatio  N.  Powers. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  70,  p.  490. 
Lippincott,  November,  1884,  p.  524. 
Literary  World,  v.  15,  p.  326. 
Nation,  v.  39,  p.  401,  by  G.  E.  Woodberry. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  58,  p.  792. 
Spectator,  v.  58,  p.  120. 

Life,  Travels,  and  Books  of  Humboldt 
Athenaeum,  no.  1689,  p.  339. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  19,  p.  837. 
Knickerbocker,  November,  1859,  p.  538. 

Masque  of  the  Gods 
Athenaeum,  no.  2327,  p.  682. 
Atlantic,  v.  29,  p.  750,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  April  6,  1872. 
New  York  Tribune,  April  16,  1872. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  33,  p.  6yy. 

Melodies  of  Verse 
Literary  World,  October  18,  1884,  p.  359. 

National  Ode 
'  Galaxy,  February,  1877,  p.  287. 


105 

Northern  Travels 

Athenaeum,  no.  1571,  p.  1509. 
Athenaeum,  no.  1572,  p.  1553. 
Knickerbocker,  March,  1858,  p.  310. 
Spectator,  January  2,  1858,  p.  22. 

On  Two  Continents 
Athenaeum,  no.  4073,  p.  684. 

Cleveland  Leader,  September  11,  1905,  by  Jeannette  Gilder. 
Critic,  V.  47,  p.  344,  by  Jeannette  Gilder. 
Dial,  V.  39,  p.  200,  by  P.  F.  Bicknarll. 
Nation,  v.  82,  p.  100. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  February  3,  1906. 
New  York  Sun,  October  i,  1905,  by  M.  W.  Hazeltine. 
New  York  Tribune,  September  24,  1905. 
Public  Opinion,  v.  39,  p.  828. 
Spectator,  v.  96,  p.  645. 

Palestine,  Asia  Minor,  etc. 
Athenaeum,  no.  1435,  P-  4^1  • 

Picture  of  St.  John 
Athenaeum,  no.  2045,  P-  H- 
Atlantic,  v.  19,  p,  126,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Fortnightly,  v.  7,  p.  382,  by  J.  Knight. 
New  York  Times,  October  15,  1866. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  13,  1866. 
North  American  Review,  v.  104,  p.  294,  by  J.  R.  Lowell. 
Public  Opinion,  London,  October  21,  1865,  p.  442. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  23,  p.  382. 

Poems  of  Home  and  Travel 
Albion,  January  5,  1856,  p.  9. 
Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  7,  p.  109. 

Poems  of  the  Orient 
Albion,  November  11,  1854,  p.  537. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  10,  p.  137. 


106 

Knickerbocker,  December,  1854,  p.  630. 

National  Magazine,  January,  1855,  p.  85. 

New  York  Tribune,  November  14,  1854. 

North  American  Review,  v.  80,  p.  2(^,  by  A.  P.  Peabody. 

Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  v.  4,  p.  668. 

Poet's  Journal 

Albion,  December  20,  1862,  p.  609.  This  is  no  doubt  the 
"truculent  article,"  to  which  A.  H.  Smyth  refers  in 
"  Bayard  Taylor,"  p.  139. 

Athenaeum,  no.  1842,  p.  224. 

Knickerbocker,  July,  1863,  p.  25. 

National  Quarterly  Review,  December,  1862,  p.  176. 

New  York  Times,  December  14,  1862. 

New  York  Tribune,  December  26,  1862. 

New  York  World,  November  29,  1862,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 

Prince  Deukalion 
Athenaeum,  no.  2666,  p.  686. 
Atlantic,  v.  43,  p.  117,  by  G.  P.  Lathrop. 
Literary  World,  January  4,  1879,  p.  3. 
Nation,  v.  2.y,  p.  337. 

National  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1879,  p.  389. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  December  2,  1878. 
New  York  Times,  December  2,  1878. 
New  York  Tribune,  December  17,  1878. 
The  English  Novel,  New  York,  1883,  pp.  106-112,  166-167, 
by  Sidney  Lanier. 

Prophet 
Athenaeum,  no.  2454,  p.  605. 
Atlantic,  v.  34,  p.  743,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Eclectic,  December,  1874,  p.  761. 
Nation,  v.  19,  p.  204. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  September  11,  1874. 
New  York  Independent,  September  24,  1874. 
New  York  Tribune,  September  12,  1874. 
North  American  Review,  v.  120,  p.  188,  by  Henry  James. 


107 

Pennsylvania  Monthly,  v.  5,  p.  924. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  39,  p.  162. 
Spectator,  v.  48,  p.  985. 

Rhymes  of  Travel 
Albion,  January  20,  1849,  P-  33- 
Athenaeum,  no.  11 18,  p.  323. 
Literary  World,  January  13,  1849,  P-  3i- 

Sartain's  Union  Magazine,  April,  1849,  p.  285,  by  J.  S.  Hart. 
Southern  Quarterly  Review,  v.  16,  p.  224. 
The  Literati,  by  E.  A.  Poe. 

School  History  of  Germany 
New  York  Evening  Post,  October  22 y  1874. 
New  York  Times,  February  11,  1894. 

Smyth's  Life  of  Bayard  Taylor 

Atlantic,  April,  1896,  p.  569. 

Bookman,  v.  3,  p.  263,  by  Professor  H.  T.  Peck. 

Critic,  V.  25,  p.  230. 

Dial,  V.  21,  p.  64,  by  T.  F.  Huntington. 

Harper's  Weekly,  v.  40,  p.  294,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 

Literary  World,  v.  27,  p.  89. 

Nation,  v.  63,  p.  73. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  July  31,  1896. 

New  York  Tribune,  April  26,  1896. 

Public  Opinion,  v.  20,  p.  375. 

Story  of  Kennett 
Athenaeum,  no.  201 1,  p.  631. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2040,  p.  714. 
Atlantic,  v.  17,  p.  775,  by  W.  D.  Howells. 
Critic,  V.  41,  p.  131,  by  Alden  W.  Quimby. 
Literary  World,  September,  1903,  p.  229. 
Nation,  v.  2,  p.  501. 

New  York  Independent,  April  19,  1866. 
New  York  Times,  March  30,  1866. 
New  York  Tribune,  April  5,  1866. 


108 

Public  Opinion,  London,  March  17,  1866,  p.  291. 
Spectator,  April  28,  1866,  p.  469. 

Studies  in  German  Literature 
Academy,  v.  16,  p.  437. 
Athenaeum,  no.  2723,  p.  18. 
Goethe- Jahrbuch,  v.  3,  p.  415. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  60,  p.  627. 
Lippincott,  October,  1880,  p.  519. 
Literary  World,  December  6,  1879,  P-  409- 
Literary  World,  London,  January  30,  1880,  p.  (^, 
National  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1880,  p.  491. 
New  Englander,  v.  40,  p.  40,  by  Franklin  Carter. 
Pennsylvania  Monthly,  v.  11,  p.  441. 
Saturday  Review,  v.  48,  p.  644. 
Scribner,  v.  19,  p.  471. 
Spectator,  v.  53,  p.  531. 

Taylor's  Dramatic  Works 
Atlantic,  v.  47,  p.  430,  by  G.  P.  Lathrop. 
Literary  World,  January  i,  1881,  p.  12. 

Taylor's  Novels 
Nation,  v.  28,  p.  11. 

Taylor's  Poetical  Works 
Atlantic,  v.  45,  p.  837,  by  G.  P.  Lathrop. 
Critic,  V.  2,  p.  195. 

Literary  World,  December  6,  1879,  P-  404- 
Literary  World,  London,  March  19,  1880,  p.  182. 
North  American  Review,  v.  130,  p.  98,  by  R.  H.  Stoddard. 
Poems  and  Parodies,  Boston,  1854,  by  Phoebe  Carey,  contains 

a  parody  on  Taylor's  "  Manuela "  entitled  "  Martha 

Hopkins." 
Saturday  Review,  v.  49,  p.  425. 
Southern  Atlantic  Quarterly,  v.  3,  p.  343,  by  E.  R.  Rogers. 

Travels  in  Arabia 
Saturday  Review,  v.  34,  p.  127. 


109 

Travels  in  Greece  and  Russia 
Athenaeum,  no.  1665,  p.  392. 
Harper's  Magazine,  v.  19,  p.  836. 

Views  Afoot 
Athenaeum,  no.  1007,  p.  167. 
Literary  World,  December  13,  1884,  p.  443. 
Living  Age,  v.  13,  p.  176. 

North  American  Review,  v.  64,  p.  483,  by  W.  B.  O.  Peabody. 
Public  Opinion,  London,  May  i,  1869,  p.  553. 
Spectator,  January  30,  1847,  P-  m* 
Spectator,  v.  42,  p.  540. 
Union  Magazine,  November,  1848,  p.  239. 

Works  Relating  to  the  Theory  of  Translation 

A  Few  Remarks  on  Mr.  Hayward's  English  Prose  Transla- 
tion of  Goethe's  Faust,  with  additional  observations 
on  the  Difficulty  of  Translating  German  Works  in 
General,  London,  1834,  by  Daniel  Boileau. 

Aphorismen  iiber  die  Kunst  der  poetischen  Uebertragung, 
Gegenwart,  August  8,  1874,  pp.  92-94,  by  Ernst 
Eckstein. 

Art  of  translating  with  special  reference  to  Cauer's  Die  Kunst 
des  Uebersetzens,  Boston,  1901,  by  H.  C.  Tolman. 

Aufgaben  der  Uebersetzungspoesie,  Herrig,  v.  37,  pp.  11-28, 
137-138,  149-169,  by  Julius  Altmann. 

Aus  der  Werkstatt,  Die  Kunst  des  Uebersetzers,  Stuttgart  und 
Berlin,  1904,  by  Ludwig  Fulda. 

Beitrage  zur  Sprachvergleichung,  Prosa,  Poesie,  Rhythmus 
und  Ubersetzungskunst,  Kolozsvar  (Klausenburg), 
1879,  by  Johannes  Minckwitz. 

Deutsche  Uebersetzerkunst,  Hannover,  1866,  by  O.  F.  Gruppe. 

Die  Grenzen  der  Ubersetzungskunst,  Karlsruhe,  1892,  by  Julius 
Keller. 

Die  Kunst  des  deutschen  Uebersetzers,  Oldenburg,  1 857-1 858, 
by  Tycho  Mommsen. 

Die  Kunst  des  Ubersetzens,  Berlin,  1894,  by  Paul  Cauer. 

Difficulty  of  Translation,  Nation,  v.  29,  p.  387. 


110 

Essay  on  the  Principles  of  Translation,  Edinburgh,  1813,  by 
A.  F.  Tytler,  Lord  Woodhouselee. 

fitudes  sur  la  Litterature  contemporaine,  De  la  Traduction  en 
Vers,  Paris,  1886,  by  Edmond  Scherer. 

Impossibility  of  Poetic  Translation,  Fortnightly,  v.  2,  p.  635, 
by  G.  H.  Lewes. 

La  maniere  de  bien  Traduire  d'une  langue  en  autre,  Lyon, 
1540,  by  Estienne  Dolet. 

Melanges  de  Litterature,  d'Histoire,  et  de  Philosophic,  Amster- 
dam, 1767,  anonymous. 

Oeuvres  diver ses  de  M.  L'Abbe  Gedoyn,  Apologie  des  Traduc- 
tions, Paris,  1745. 

Poems  and  Translations,  Preface  to  the  Destruction  of  Troy, 
London,  1709,  by  Sir  John  Denham. 

Poems  and  Translations,  to  Sir  Richard  Franshaw,  upon  his 
Translation  of  Pastor  fido,  London,  1709,  by  Sir 
John  Denham. 

Principien  der  Uebersetzungskunst,  Rawitsch,  1876,  by  Gustav 
Week. 

Vom  Ubersetzen  in  das  Deutsche  und  manchen  anderen, 
Giitersloh,  1887,  by  Dr.  Julius  Rothfuchs. 

Worin  besteht  die  Uebersetzungskunst?,  Lubben,  1871,  by  Dr. 
Johannes  Ehlers. 

Works  of  John  Dryden,  Preface  to  the  Translation  of  Ovid's 
Epistles,  Edinburgh,  1885,  notes  by  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
revised  and  corrected  by  George  Saintsbury. 


Ill 


VITA 

Juliana  Catherine  Shields  was  born  in  Norwich,  Connecticut, 
on  the  twenty- fourth  of  January,  1875,  and  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools  of  that  city.  In  1894  she  entered  the  private 
school  of  Fraulein  Pauline  Lange,  in  Berlin,  Germany,  where 
she  remained  until  1898.  During  this  period  she  heard  lec- 
tures by  Professor  Erich  Schmidt  at  the  University  of  Berlin 
and  at  the  Victoria  Lyceum,  and  was  privately  instructed  by 
Professor  Elise  Bartels  and  Frau  Dr.  Hempel.  From  January 
to  June,  1898,  she  taught  Mathematics  and  Latin  at  the  Nor- 
wich Free  Academy.  From  September,  1898,  to  July,  1899, 
she  taught  German  at  the  same  institution.  July  ist,  1899, 
she  married  Henry  S.  Haskell,  Yale,  '92.  In  September,  1900, 
she  entered  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  where  she  studied 
exclusively  under  Professor  Edward  M.  Brown  and  Professor 
Max  Poll.  In  September,  1902,  she  entered  Barnard  College 
and  received  in  1904  the  degree  of  A.B.,  and  in  1905  the  degree 
of  A.M.  Since  1904  she  has  been  continuously  in  residence  at 
Columbia  University. 


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